Ohio State prevails in CBS Sports Classic rock fight with UCLA

Chris Holtmann said earlier this week that UCLA is probably as good a defensive team Ohio State will see all season. That wasn’t coach speak.

The Buckeyes committed a five-second violation, a three-second violation and eight other turnovers in the opening frame against UCLA Saturday afternoon, off which an offensively-challenged Bruins squad scored eight first-half points.

During a media timeout more than midway through the first period, CBS Sports sideline reporter Jenny Dell asked Holtmann why he had a Band-Aid on his hand, and the seventh-year Buckeyes head coach admitted he punched his clipboard and cut himself in the process.

Holtmann was pleading for his team — which came in 12.4 turnovers per game — to be stronger with the ball. Ohio State wasn’t just turning it over, though.

UCLA and its top-five scoring defense held Ohio State to 22 first-half points and 0-of-10 from beyond the arc. That’s after the Buckeyes had scored 80-plus points in six straight games for the first time since 2011-12. They also entered the matchup with the seventh-best 3-point percentage (40.4%) in the country.

It turned out Ohio State needed only one 3-pointer, and it came with 46 seconds to go. Jamison Battle — part of a resurgent Buckeyes second half — drilled a triple from the top of the arc to give Ohio State a two-possession advantage. That was enough to keep UCLA away in the final minute of a hard-fought game that featured 18 lead changes and ultimately resulted in a 67-60 Buckeyes victory.

Battle effectively sealed the deal, but Ohio State wouldn’t have worked through its offensive fits without the persistence of Bruce Thornton. The star point guard started 0-of-8 from the field but shot 4-of-7 in the second half and finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

“I mean, it’s all led by this guy,” Holtmann told Dell postgame with his arm around Thornton. “It’s all led by him. He leads in practice every day. I’m really proud of him. They just found a way.

“We said it was going to be a rock fight. It was. But when you have dudes like this, you feel pretty good as a coach.”

The Buckeyes (9-2, 1-1 Big Ten) made their first three shots of the game. They were getting into the paint off dribble hand-off actions, including one where wing Evan Mahaffey slipped an extra pass to center Felix Okpara, who dunked over UCLA big man Adem Bona.

Ohio State’s offensive success was short-lived. The Bruins (5-4) buckled down and seemingly put a pad lock on the paint. They started forcing the Buckeyes to take outside shots. Good looks or not, those weren’t falling for Holtmann’s crew.

Roddy Gayle Jr. shouldered the scoring load early for Ohio State, piling up a team-high eight points in the first half.

Luckily for the Buckeyes, UCLA has been a work in progress offensively this season, and the Bruins were no different Saturday in State Farm Arena, home of the Atlanta Hawks. UCLA began the game 5-of-20 from the field.

The Bruins got some much-needed jump shooting from guards Dylan Andrews and Will McClendon and, when all was said and done, were paced by a team-high 14 points from freshman Sebastian Mack.

Except, everything was tough sledding for head coach Mick Cronin’s team, too. Bona, UCLA’s second-leading scorer, didn’t get going until the second half. Plus, the Bruins wound up missing seven of their 18 free throw attempts and eight of their nine 3-point attempts.

Granted the bar was extremely low — Ohio State and UCLA shot 34.5% and 31.3%, respectively, from the field in the first half — but the soon-to-be Big Ten foes were better offensively in the final frame.

That’s in large part because Thornton and Bona found their groove.

Perhaps most notably, there was a stretch in the second half where Ohio State cashed in six consecutive field goals. Of those six, Thornton was responsible for two of them: the first being an and-one jumper that he completed at the free throw line and the second a pull-up make from mid range that put the Buckeyes ahead, 48-47.

Meanwhile, UCLA made four shots in a row, including three straight from Bona. He used a screen from Lazar Stefanovic to slip free before receiving a pass from Andrews and slamming home a dunk over Battle. Then he got Ohio State center Zed Key to leave his feet with a fake, allowing him to reach the rim for an easy two. Bona — a 6-foot-10 sophomore who finished with 12 points and six rebounds — capped the stretch with a baby hook over Okpara.

Bona, however, rounded out the day with three giveaways and four fouls. He was in danger of fouling out down the stretch, as were both Key and Okpara.

Okpara actually did foul out with 1:54 to go, but that’s only after he added to his 10-point, four-rebound performance with a critical alley-oop dunk. Okpara rolled after setting a screen, and the weak side cover wasn’t there for UCLA. Thornton capitalized on the rare Bruins defensive breakdown, lofting a perfect pass for the 6-foot-11 Okpara.

That exchange, plus one more Okpara bucket that followed an Andrews layup, kept Ohio State ahead of UCLA by six late in the neutral site showdown.

A baseline jumper from Mack got the Bruins back within one possession. Then came Battle’s music. Before his silk-smooth 3-pointer, Ohio State was 0-of-14 from beyond the arc. The Buckeyes hadn’t had a game without a 3-pointer since 2014, and they hadn’t won one without a triple since 2002.

Both of those streaks are still alive because of a gutsy, last-minute make from Battle, who also netted a handful of turnaround fadeaways inside the 3-point line Saturday.

Ohio State’s scoring attack started and ended with Gayle. The sophomore guard notched a team-high 19 points, not to mention his six rebounds, and he sunk five free throws in the final 30 seconds, including his last two after stomping out UCLA’s last-ditch effort with a steal.

Gayle found a way to keep the Buckeyes afloat in the first half. Thornton, a native of nearby Fairburn, found a way to turn his day around in front of friends and family. And Battle found a way to connect from deep when Ohio State needed to deliver a final blow.

It wasn’t pretty. Actually, at points it was pretty ugly. But, as Holtmann said, his Buckeyes found a way.