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Buckeyes stay hot, blow out Penn State for B1G road win

Spencer-Holbrookby:Spencer Holbrook•about 9 hours•

SpencerHolbrook

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Ohio State G Micah Parrish (© Taj Falconer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

COLUMBUS — Ohio State is finding its footing in the difficult Big Ten hoops slate in the first year of the Jake Diebler era.

Think the win at Purdue last weekend was just a chaotic upset? It might be time to think again, because after the Buckeyes beat Iowa at home on Monday night, they went back on the road and beat a struggling Penn State team inside the Bryce Jordan Center.

Final score: Ohio State 83, Penn State 64. That’s three wins in a row for Diebler’s team, which is all of a sudden playing good basketball ahead of a pivotal stretch that could determine its potential NCAA Tournament fate.

Freshman sharpshooter John Mobley had 19 points, six rebounds and eight assists to lead the Buckeyes; he’s becoming one of the best young stars in the Big Ten with his play lately. Fellow guard Bruce Thornton had 17 points to help in the road win. Devin Royal had 15 points and eight rebounds while Micah Parrish had 12.

That’s the core of the Ohio State scoring right now, and it appears to be working — three straight wins proves that.

So do three road wins in the month of January, which as Connor Lemons of Land Grant-Holy Land pointed out, is as many as the Buckeyes had in the previous two years combined.

As critical as it was to score road wins at Purdue and Penn State sandwiched with a home win over Iowa, the Buckeyes can’t let up at all. At 13-8 and 5-5 in Big Ten play, the next week and change will be the stretch of the season that will define this group. Ohio State will travel to Champagne on Sunday to face No. 18 Illinois, which just fell at Nebraska on Thursday evening.

Following the road game at Illinois, the Buckeyes will face Maryland — which beat Ohio State by 24 in College Park back in December — next Thursday in Columbus before hitting the road to face Nebraska on Feb. 9.

Win a couple of those three, and the Buckeyes’ NCAA Tournament resume really begins to take shape. Drop those games after the three-game win streak, and the last few weeks of the season will be a tough stretch as Diebler pushes for a tournament berth in his first season as a head coach.

Ohio State remaining basketball schedule

Feb. 2 at Illinois
Feb. 6 vs. Maryland
Feb. 9 at Nebraska
Feb. 12 vs. Washington
Feb. 16 vs. Michigan
Feb. 20 vs. Northwestern
Feb. 23 at UCLA
Feb. 26 at USC
March 4 vs. Nebraska
March 8 at Indiana
March 12-16 Big Ten Tournament (Indianapolis)

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