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Buckeyes stay hot, take down Iowa behind second-half surge

Spencer-Holbrookby:Spencer Holbrook•01/27/25•

SpencerHolbrook

Bruce Thornton
Ohio State G Bruce Thornton (© Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

COLUMBUS — Maybe the Ohio State hoops team just needed the football team to finally wrap up its longest season ever with a national championship win to find a groove of its own.

Since last Monday night, when Ryan Day and the Buckeyes won the football program’s ninth national title and first in a decade, Jake Diebler and the basketball team have strung together two straight impressive Big Ten wins.

First, Ohio State strolled into Mackey Arena and earned the signature road win of Diebler’s debut season on Tuesday night; the Buckeyes took down Purdue.

Monday night, the winning ways continued when Ohio State used a massive second-half surge to throttle Iowa 82-65 on the same night the Schottenstein Center honored those national champions from the football program.

Coincidence? Sure. But Diebler’s team seems to be finding its footing in the Big Ten. And it couldn’t have come at a better time for this club.

Just a week ago, Ohio State was saddled with a three-game losing streak, those coming to Oregon at home, Wisconsin on the road and then to Indiana at home. The former two were ranked teams. That Indiana loss wears like a stain given what the Hoosiers are trotting onto the floor lately.

Don’t look now, though, but the Buckeyes are getting right at potentially the time. Purdue was the first victim in a shocking league result that will bolster any NCAA Tournament resume Ohio State has come Selection Sunday. This result Monday night was just a confirmation that this Buckeyes team can and will be a tough out for any of the Big Ten’s contenders — even if this win came over an Iowa team that just isn’t a typical Fran McCaffery bunch.

Ohio State shot the ball well. It rebounded the basketball well. And it distributed the ball around the floor for good shots while winning in transition. That’s a winning recipe against anyone, especially in conference games at home.

After stacking wins over Purdue and Iowa, Ohio State has a shot to make it three in a row Thursday in State College against Penn State, a team plodding its own way through league action in January.

With back-to-back Big Ten wins in row, the Buckeyes should feel plenty confident on the road Thursday and again Sunday when they face a really good Illinois team in Champaign. Maybe all Diebler and this hoops team needed was to see their friends across the parking lot at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center hoist a trophy to get hot.

Coincidence or not, they’ll take a second straight win however they could get it. Iowa was the latest Buckeyes victim — and they way Ohio State is playing, it probably won’t be the last this week.

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