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Zach Edey, Purdue end Buckeyes magical Big Ten Tournament ride

IMG_7408by:Andy Backstrom•03/11/23•

andybackstrom

Ohio State basketball by Quinn Harris/Getty Images
Purdue center Zach Edey shoots over a pair of Ohio State defenders during the Big Ten Tournament semifinals on March 11. Edey led the Boilermakers in scoring. (Quinn Harris/Getty Images)

Ohio State was playing its fourth game in four days without two of its three All-Big Ten honorees while up against the top seed in the Big Ten Tournament and the frontrunner for the National Player of the Year.

As was the case Feb. 19 when the Buckeyes faced Purdue in Mackey Arena — in a way, the start of the Ohio State’s late-season resurrection — head coach Chris Holtmann had to turn to junior wing Eugene Brown III to help at the five against 7-foot-4 Purdue center Zach Edey.

It was a tall task. Quite literally.

And that was the same problem Saturday afternoon in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals. Buckeyes freshman center Felix Okpara got in some foul trouble, Brown’s number was called, and the 6-foot-7 junior — nine inches shorter and 110 pounds lighter than Edey — could only do so much.

When Ohio State was up, 31-27, with under four minutes to go in the first half, Brown was called for a hook-and-hold flagrant 1 while trying to box out Edey. It occurred on a made Braden Smith jumper, ultimately resulting in a six-point Purdue swing: Edey made the ensuing free throws and then a subsequent bucket in the paint.

That was part of a 21-5 Boilermakers run to end the first half.

Although Ohio State pulled within six points of the Purdue in the back half of the second period, head coach Matt Painter’s squad — the AP No. 1 team for seven weeks this season — never folded. Edey turned in 32 points and 14 rebounds, and the Boilermakers ultimately powered to the finish line for an 80-66 victory.

Without star freshman forward Brice Sensabaugh — sidelined with a knee injury — for the second straight game, the 13th-seeded Buckeyes (16-19, 5-5 Big Ten) needed scoring to come from other places. Roddy Gayle Jr. stepped up. Again.

Gayle bettered his season high of 15 points against Michigan State in the quarterfinals with 16 first-half points against Purdue (28-5, 15-5) Saturday. He converted his first five 3-point attempts.

To put that in perspective, in Gayle’s first 33 games this season, he totaled 13 triples. Against MSU and Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament, the freshman guard piled up eight 3-pointers.

“We all knew what Roddy was capable of doing the whole year, man,” freshman point guard Bruce Thornton said postgame. “He just brought it out when we needed it the most.”

Gayle finished with a team-high 20 points and was a big reason why the Buckeyes found themselves ahead, 29-21, with 8:18 to go in the opening frame.

So was Justice Sueing, who continued his 3-point shooting hot streak. Sueing entered the Big Ten Tournament with a 23.1% clip and 18 makes from beyond the arc this season. Then, during the Buckeyes’ four-game tourney run, the sixth-year forward went 10-of-19 from deep.

Sueing made a critical 3-pointer to prevent Purdue from running away with things early after the Boilermakers started the game on a 10-4 run that saw Brandon Newman and Fletcher Loyer connect from outside and Edey get back-to-back hook shots to go.

Okpara got off to a fast start, too. He scored six points in the first five minutes of play, slipping behind Edey after rolling on screens. Unfortunately for Ohio State, though, the 6-foot-11 big man picked up his second personal by the 6:29 mark.

Before then, however, the Buckeyes built their three-possession lead. Not only did Ohio State shoot 7-of-11 from downtown in the first half, but Holtmann’s crew also logged seven points off Purdue’s first four turnovers.

Ohio State, which recorded 11 of its 13 assists in the first half, showcased some of its best ball movement of the season, perhaps no better exemplified than Brown throwing down a two-handed flush after Sueing and Tanner Holden — once again in Ohio State’s shorthanded rotation — swung the ball around the perimeter, freeing up the lane.

Brown’s dunk was part of a 16-4 Buckeyes surge that vaulted them ahead of Purdue, 26-19. More notably, that’s when Gayle dialed up four of his five 3-pointers.

Sueing’s second triple got the Buckeyes to their aforementioned eight-point advantage.

Even though Edey notched his 25th double-double of the season, he was held off the glass for the first 13 minutes and change. He had only one rebound in the opening period, and it came on the offensive end. As the battle on the boards, and then in the paint, shifted, so did the game.

But, initially, the Boilermakers pulled themselves out of their hole by feeding Edey inside and hitting timely jumpers out of their half court sets. Throughout much of the first period, in particular, Edey was in 1-on-1 situations without the normal double or triple-teams he faces.

“We were trying to trap him,” Holtmann said. “We just couldn’t get there. He got it too deep a couple times, more than a couple times. Their ability, they do a great job obviously getting him the ball, but also he just plants in the paint and you can’t move him.”

Meanwhile, before the flagrant-foul inducing, six-point swing, Ohio State went scoreless for nearly three minutes and committed four turnovers in the process, including a pair of shot clock violations.

Gayle’s final 3-pointer of the half was a fleeting recovery, one that gave the Buckeyes their final lead of the game. Except it was short-lived: Utah senior transfer David Jenkins Jr. netted two 3-pointers down the stretch of the first half, helping Purdue head into the locker room up, 42-34.

Ohio State came into the second half with serious foul trouble. Brown’s game-changing flagrant 1 doubled as his third personal. So both he and Okpara had to be careful defending the interior. That was easier said than done. Okpara wound up fouling out with 2:19 remaining, and Brown finished with four fouls.

“The storyline of the game is they only have one center,” Painter said. “So we had that matchup the whole night. … Zach was going to have an advantage, and we were going to be able to get to the free throw line.

“It just makes a lot of sense just to get him the basketball, get them in foul trouble, get to the free throw line and try to steal as many points as possible.”

Of Purdues’ 22 free throws, 14 came in the second half. Edey was responsible for five of them.

Just about seven minutes into the final frame, the Boilermakers stretched their lead to 55-40, in part thanks to the jump shooting of Newman and Smith, who finished with 15 and 14 points, respectively.

Ohio State wasn’t going to bow out. Not like the Buckeyes did in their last meeting with Purdue. And not after they had come this far in the league tournament.

Thornton, previously scoreless, mounted nine points during a 15-6 Ohio State run that made it a two-possession game with 5:43 left.

But a nearly four-minute field goal drought did the Buckeyes in. Meanwhile, Edey, Newman and Smith restored Purdue’s double-digit advantage, and some.

It was an anticlimactic end to a thrilling four-day Big Ten Tournament ride for the Buckeyes. In his postgame press conference, Holtmann made it sound like his team might not pursue a postseason tournament, like the NIT, because of the Buckeyes’ build-up of injuries, some of which aren’t public.

So Saturday might be it for a roller coaster Ohio State season that featured a 10-3 start, a 1-14 collapse and a 5-2 finish — that last chapter is filled to the brim with optimism, especially considering the Buckeyes are expected to return at least three of their four freshmen starters.

But, even for the departing veterans like Sueing, there’s something to hang their hats on.

“I think we showed what Ohio State basketball is,” he said. “We go out there and we compete. It doesn’t matter who’s on the other side. My guys brought it regardless of who we’re playing.

“We did our job by playing the right way, making the right plays and leaving it all out there on the floor.”

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