In driver's seat wire-to-wire, Ohio State gets payback against Michigan

COLUMBUS — Ohio State needed 16 straight second-half points in Ann Arbor to have chance against Big Ten bottom dwelling Michigan back on Jan. 15. The Buckeyes caved down the stretch of that meeting just as their second straight January-February conference slide started to reach full speed.

A bit more than a month and a half later, the Buckeyes were up 16 points against their arch rival with 5:58 to go in a game where Ohio State, quite frankly, outclassed Michigan when it mattered most.

This time, another massive Buckeyes run — a 14-0 surge in less than three minutes — dismantled Michigan, turning an already-11-point lead into a 25-point advantage.

Ohio State’s walk-ons and a couple reserves helped Jake Diebler cap his fourth win in five games as interim head coach and the program keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.

With an 84-61 victory, during which Diebler’s team shot 71.4% from the field in the second half, Ohio State (18-12, 8-11 Big Ten) has now won three games in a row for the first time since late December and early January. Michigan (8-22, 3-16), on the other hand, has lost seven consecutive games.

Zed Key has electric start to Senior Day

Because of the COVID-19 waiver, Ohio State center Zed Key technically has another year of eligibility if he wants to use it, but Key was one of the four Buckeyes players recognized on Senior Day, along with Minnesota grad transfer Jamison Battle, Baylor grad transfer Dale Bonner and preferred walk-on Owen Spencer. All four started, however, Key made the biggest early-game impact. He scored Ohio State’s first four points, and he got the Buckeyes on the board with a one-handed poster dunk over Michigan’s Will Tschetter. Key moved Wolverines center Taris Reed Jr. with a shot fake from beyond the arc and then attacked the lane for his thundering drunk that ignited the scarlet-clad crowd, especially the packed “Nuthouse” student section.

Key then dropped in a reverse layup soon after. His third field goal included a different kind of theatrics than his game-opening slam. After losing his handle not once but twice in the post, Key beat the shot clock with a turnaround jumper. Fittingly, Key — known for his celebratory gestures during his four-year Ohio State career — gave the crowd a big shrug as he ran back down the court. Key rounded out the first half with eight points, tied with point guard Bruce Thornton for the team lead in that department. He also pulled down three rebounds in the opening frame, including two on the offensive end.

Missed shots, untimely turnovers prevent Buckeyes from breaking game open early

Ohio State led for 19:13 of the first half, maintained a 20-12 edge in the paint and scored eight points off nine Michigan turnovers in the opening period. But the Buckeyes never led by more than eight in the first 20 minutes of action, despite a handful of opportunities to stake themselves to a double-digit lead. Perhaps none better than the game’s first three and a half minutes when Ohio State held the Wolverines without a field goal. During that span, Diebler’s team had only Key’s two quick buckets to hang its hat on — well, aside from its superb defense.

The Buckeyes missed five of their first 11 layups and shot only 1-of-6 from deep in the opening frame. They got good looks, but the ball frequently orbited the rim or rattled off the front end. It didn’t help that Ohio State had seven first-half turnovers of its own.

Although the Buckeyes strung together a 7-2 run down the stretch of the opening period — courtesy of powerful dunks from Thornton and center Felix Okpara — they couldn’t build on the six-point lead they earned, logging only one more field goal in the final two minutes of the half.

Ohio State’s ‘Big Three’ puts away Michigan

When Ohio State opened the second half with 10 straight points, it looked like the Buckeyes were going to run away from their arch rival. Literally.

Ohio State had just strung together three straight fastbreak buckets: an Evan Mahaffey layup, followed by Okpara and Roddy Gayle Jr. dunks. Except, Michigan head coach Juwan Howard’s troops rallied for a 7-0 spurt of their own. The Wolverines — guided by Dug McDaniel‘s 19 points and Terrance Williams II‘s 13 points — didn’t fold over in the second half.

Well, at least for most of the second half.

Ohio State’s “Big Three” of Thornton, Gayle and Battle extinguished Michigan’s road flame. Once Michigan cut another second-half, double-digit deficit to seven — in large part thanks to a Tschetter 3-pointer and a Reed layup midway through the frame — the Buckeyes’ stars delivered. A Gayle steal led to a Thornton second-chance 3-pointer on the other end. Then, moments later, Gayle got his own 3-point play, the old-fashioned kind. A finger-roll plus the bump (and subsequent free throw) put the Buckeyes in front, 60-47.

McDaniel came back with a pair of field goals, but Thornton answered first from the charity stripe, and then Battle drained a corner from the right wing. That Battle 3-pointer might as well have been the dagger because it was the start of the aforementioned 14-0 run that gave Ohio State a 76-51 advantage with 3:42 to go.

Thornton, Gayle and Battle finished with a combined 40 points.