Buckeyes fend off second-half push by Illinois, snap nine-game skid
COLUMBUS — Illinois fifth-year forward and Baylor transfer Matthew Mayer knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Fighting Illini a 3-0 lead in the opening seconds of Sunday afternoon’s game against Ohio State.
Immediately, the Orange Krush let out a roar from the upper deck of The Schottenstein Center, stealing the spotlight from a home crowd awaiting its first win in over a month.
Before long, however, the Ohio State faithful drowned out Illinois’ traveling student section to the tune of an 8-0 Buckeyes run. That was just the beginning.
Led by four freshmen starters for the third straight game, Ohio State stitched together one of its best halves of the season, a start reminiscent of the Buckeyes’ first 13 games.
Five different Ohio State players recorded five or more points in the opening frame. Ohio State outrebounded Illinois — the second best team on the glass in the Big Ten — 23-9, shot 60.7% from the floor and held the Illini to a 36.7% clip.
The Buckeyes entered the break with a 12-point advantage. Despite a second-half push from Illinois head coach Brad Underwood’s team, Ohio State gripped to its lead, never gave it up and ultimately — courtesy of some timely dunks — snapped its nine-game losing streak with a 72-60 victory.
“I feel like I owe it to the coaches, my teammates, the fans, man,” Buckeyes freshman point guard and captain Bruce Thornton said postgame. “Like they come out, and there’s unbelievable support. Every single game, they come out.
“I’m so glad I’m here at Ohio State. There’s no better place than here.”
Thornton registered 19 or more points for the third time in the last seven games and the second outing in a row. He was humming for the Buckeyes (12-17, 4-14 Big Ten), especially from the middle of the floor.
Thornton scored or assisted on four of Ohio State’s first five goals against Illinois (19-10, 10-8).
Underwood noted postgame that Thornton is “just a much more confident player” at his point, compared to when Ohio State lost in Champaign on Jan. 24.
“Everybody knows he can shoot it,” Underwood said. “And he’s picking his spots extremely well.”
While Thornton was rolling, Illinois’ Terrence Shannon Jr. was struggling. Shannon piled up a combined 46 points his last two games, and he had 17 versus Ohio State during the teams’ first meeting. But, on Sunday, Isaac “Ice” Likekele got the best of the Texas Tech transfer.
As Buckeyes head coach Chris Holtmann said postgame, Likekele made Shannon “work.”
“Ice did what Ice does,” Holtmann said.
Although Likekele didn’t attempt a shot in 27 minutes, the Oklahoma State grad transfer played a big part in Shannon scoring just 10 points, only two of which came in the first half, and him fouling out with 2:16 to go.
Versatile four man Coleman Hawkins and Mayer accounted for most of Illinois’ offense in the opening frame. In fact, they teamed up for 19 of the Illini’s 29 points in the period.
Hawkins, who finished with a team-high 14 points and seven rebounds, even dunked over Ohio State wing-turned-five man Eugene Brown III to punctuate a steal on a breakaway. That one-handed jam, however, hardly made a dent in what was already a double-digit Buckeyes lead.
Besides, Ohio State quickly grew its advantage back to 13 points. West Virginia grad transfer Sean McNeil scored five of the Buckeyes’ next seven points, putting them up, 33-20.
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From there, Thornton and Sensabaugh — former AAU teammates and, now, Ohio State’s top-two freshmen — took the keys and kept the Buckeyes in the driver’s seat, giving them a 41-29 halftime lead.
Holtmann’s crew started the second half strong. Sixth-year forward Justice Sueing located freshman center Felix Okpara for an alley-oop dunk. Then Okpara recorded both a block and a steal, and, shortly after that, Sensabaugh drilled a mid-range jumper to bump Ohio State’s lead to 14.
That’s when Illinois made its move. The Illini drew within four points of the Buckeyes a handful of times in the second period, first by orchestrating a 10-0 run that culminated in back-to-back and-one conversions by Shannon.
Then Illinois made it a one-possession game with a Mayer transition layup with 10:16 to go in the final frame — and again when Hawkins followed a Roddy Gayle Jr. missed 3-pointer with a layup. Each time, Ohio State had an answer, though. Most notably, McNeil delivered a two-handed dunk, his first slam of the season, on a backdoor cut.
Except that joyous moment was short-lived, as the Illini promptly got one point away from knotting things up on the ensuing possession. Illinois freshman guard Jayden Epps drilled a 3-pointer after a Likekele off-ball foul to make it 53-52.
Ohio State, losers of 14 of its last 15 games, responded with a raucous-inspiring 11-1 surge that featured a one-handed, Sensabaugh posterizer over Mayer and a spin-and-score and-one from Thornton. Sensabaugh and Thornton combined for 34 points in the win.
What started it all was an offensive rebound and putback from Sueing. He had two of those in the second half and rounded out the day with a 14-and-11 double-double.
“Listen, we knew they were going to make a run,” Holtmann said. It’s college basketball. Every team does. I thought those guys, they stepped up and made plays. They really did.
“Our players stepped up and made plays.”
Sueing added: “It just means a lot because I feel like we’ve had a lot of postgame interviews where we were saying, ‘We’re just right there, right there to get over that hump.’ Today, I feel like we’ve been the most together. We also played like we were supposed to win today. And I think it showed.”
Ohio State’s second-half run restored its double-digit lead. That gave the Buckeyes more than enough of a cushion to reach the finish line and say goodbye to the program’s longest losing streak since 1997-98.
“I think they needed that to feel good about themselves and to validate some of what we’ve been telling them. With, ‘Hey, listen, we are playing more quality possessions than what we were.’ It will be rewarded, there’s no question.”
It was rewarded Sunday.
