Three Points: Buckeyes blow 18-point second-half lead to Indiana, spiral continues

COLUMBUS — A blown 18-point second-half lead. A fate-sealing turnover. Each had already happened to Ohio State in separate games on the road this season.

This time, the Buckeyes fell victim to both of those embarrassments at home.

Ohio State, which went close to seven minutes without a field goal in the final frame, saw the shorthanded Hoosiers come all the way back Tuesday night in the Schottenstein Center.

Senior guard Anthony Leal hit the game-winning corner 3-pointer, just his sixth triple of the season and the 22nd of his four-year Indiana career.

Then a Jamison Battle turnover effectively did the Buckeyes in.

Bruce Thornton had a chance to tie the game with a 3-pointer from the top of the arc just before the buzzer, but his shot hit back iron.

Thornton hit the floor, and veterans Zed Key and Dale Bonner immediately went to comfort the Buckeyes’ sophomore leader.

Ohio State fell, 76-73, to Indiana after leading for more than 33 minutes. The Buckeyes (13-10, 3-9 Big Ten) have now lost eight of their last nine games.

Roddy Gayle Jr., Bruce Thornton get off to good start but go quiet in the final frame

In Bloomington earlier this season, Ohio State’s top-two leading scorers, Thornton and Roddy Gayle Jr., were a combined 7-of-34 from the field, including 0-of-12 from long range. Their inability to score was a big reason why the Buckeyes shot only 28.2% from the floor in the second half and why, despite leading for more than 20 minutes on the road, Ohio State started its winter spiral with a frustrating defeat in a deafening Assembly Hall.

It was a different story in the first half Tuesday night in the Schottenstein Center.

Thornton got the Buckeyes on the board with a bunny and accounted for four of Ohio State’s first six points. Gayle was responsible for the other two. While the much-improved sophomore guard hit a 3-pointer from the top of the arc later in the period, he did most of his work during a 15-point first half knifing through the paint. Gayle didn’t miss in the opening frame — not from the floor (5-of-5) and not from the free throw line (4-of-4).

Gayle and Thornton, who began the season by making a case for the best backcourt in the Big Ten, looked like it in the first half Tuesday. Especially when they bookended a 12-2 Buckeyes run with 3-pointers: first Gayle and then Thornton, with Thornton’s extending their lead to 25-15. Ohio State maintained a double-digit advantage for much of the opening period’s final minutes.

Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, things were dicier for Gayle and Thornton in the back half of play. Then again, things were dicier for Ohio State in general during the offensively-challenged period.

Thornton, in particular, had a hard time making a dent in the score card. While their 10-of-23 shooting performance remained far superior than their cold streak at Indiana last month, the first/second half split overshadowed that improvement.

Ohio State played better interior defense in the first half — not so much in the second…

Down the stretch of the teams’ last meeting on Jan. 6, Indiana punished the Buckeyes inside. While Ohio State struggled to make shots, Hoosiers forward Malik Reneau put head coach Chris Holtmann’s team away. Reneau scored 19 of his 23 points in the second half of a 71-65 victory.

But neither Reneau nor Indiana 7-footer Kel’el Ware got going early against Ohio State. Granted, both of them missed a few clean looks at the rim during the opening 20 minutes, but they were a combined 3-of-11 from the field in the first period. Reneau pitched in 10 first-half points, except six of those were at the charity stripe.

Ohio State, which has seen its defensive efficiency numbers plummet in January and early February, was executing post traps effectively and walling up inside. Indiana was handcuffed in the backcourt without veteran point guard Xavier Johnson. That seemed to throw the Hoosiers off, and their frontline wasn’t nearly productive enough to offset the absence of guard scoring in the first half.

Things changed in the second half.

Senior guard Trey Galloway got hot, at one point scoring nine of Indiana’s next 11 points, thanks to a couple of putbacks. Later in the half, when Ohio State went close to seven minutes without a field goal, Galloway poured in 10 more points, equipped with a pair of 3-pointers. He had 25 points, six rebounds and four assists on the night.

Ware never established a rhythm offensively and dealt with foul trouble, but Reneau had himself another impressive second half, finishing with 26 points and 14 rebounds. Whatever the Buckeyes threw at Reneau in the final frame, he had answer.

Deja vu.

Buckeyes battle foul trouble while Indiana stages huge comeback

With 11:52 to go, Ohio State was in serious foul trouble. Actually, in a game that featured a total of 58 free throws, the Buckeyes were always in a bit of a pickle.

But back-to-back second-half fouls on center Felix Okpara and, not too long after that, a third on Evan Mahaffey, called for Key to play major minutes (Devin Royal struggled from the get-go with three first-half fouls). After playing only three minutes at Iowa last time out — including zero minutes in the second half — Key logged eight second-half minutes against Indiana.

He sparked a bench scoring sequence with a finish down low, courtesy of a nice entry pass from Jamison Battle, which preceded a Dale Bonner corner 3-pointer.

But that was the end of that feel-good lift.

Ohio State lacked aggression offensively, occasionally drawing possessions deep into the shot clock, and it failed to log a field goal between the 10:33 mark and 3:52 mark in the final frame. Eventually, toward the end of that stretch, Holtmann went back to Okpara.

But the starter-led rotations weren’t much better.

The Buckeyes made only two of their final 11 field goal attempts.