After defensive battle, Rutgers outlasts Ohio State in overtime

With 68 seconds left in overtime Sunday afternoon at Rutgers, Ohio State guard Isaac Likekele went for a reverse layup. As was the case in the game’s opening minutes, Likekele’s up-and-under attempt orbited around the cup before rolling out.

The Buckeyes had struggled to get stops during their three-game losing streak. Against Rutgers, however, defense wasn’t the problem. Offense was.

Ohio State, which didn’t score the first five minutes of the game, missed a potential game-winner in regulation and made just two field goals in overtime.

Following Likekele’s ever-so-close layup, Rutgers rattled off six straight points, including a 3-pointer from Mawot Mag that proved to be the kill shot in Jersey Mike’s Arena.

The Scarlet Knights split the teams’ season series after Tanner Holden won the first meeting with a buzzer beater that the Big Ten admitted shouldn’t have counted. There was no controversy this time around. The theme of Ohio State’s season — late-game shortcomings — continued with a 68-64 loss in Piscataway, the Buckeyes’ fourth straight defeat.

Ohio State (10-7, 2-4 Big Ten) head coach Chris Holtmann made a bold decision Sunday: He took star freshman forward Brice Sensabaugh out of the Buckeyes’ starting lineup. Sensabaugh had led the team in scoring in eight of the last nine games, but his defense has been a bit of a liability of late. And so Sensabaugh and center Zed Key — in his second game back from a shoulder sprain — both came off the bench against Rutgers (13-5, 5-2).

The starting five consisted of freshman guard Bruce Thornton, West Virginia grad transfer guard Sean McNeil, sixth-year forward Justice Sueing, freshman center Felix Okpara and Likekele, a grad transfer from Oklahoma State. It marked Ohio State’s fifth different starting lineup this season and the first time that group had played together since the Buckeyes’ win over then-No. 21 Texas Tech in the Maui Invitational on Nov. 23.

The change gave Ohio State the energy it has so desperately needed defensively. In fact, the Buckeyes allowed just two points in the first four-and-a-half minutes.

Except, the problem was, they didn’t score during that span.

It was a sign of what was to come in the programs’ second meeting of the season: a heavy dosage of defense with a handful of scoring droughts. Smothering teams is what Rutgers does the best — that’s why the Scarlet Knights entered giving up the fourth-fewest points per game (56.5) in the country.

And it’s how they first generated offense Sunday. Fittingly, reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Caleb McConell picked the pocket of Sueing and went the distance for a layup that broke the ice after the teams started a combined 0-of-9 from the field.

Then Rutgers guard Paul Mulcahy found McConnell on a back cut for two more points, staking the Scarlet Knights to an early 4-0 advantage. But they didn’t score again for practically five minutes. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes stitched together a 15-0 run.

It started with a quick two field goals from Key, the second of which was a breakaway dunk made possible by a McNeil steal on the other end.

Ohio State capped the surge with back-to-back 3-pointers from Holden and Sensabaugh. Holden had one of his best games off the bench with a game-high seven points in the first half.

Sensabaugh, on the other hand, took a while to get going. But he rounded out the day with his second straight double-double, registering 20 points and 11 rebounds.

The Scarlet Knights answered with a 7-0 run that saw center Cliff Omoruyi take over. The 6-foot-11, 240-pound junior — who notched a 14-and-11 double-double — recorded a pair of blocks, each of which led to buckets, and then slammed home an alley-oop from Loyola Maryland transfer guard Cam Spencer.

Rutgers drew within three points of Ohio State in the opening frame, but that’s as close as it would get before intermission. The Buckeyes were up, 23-20, at the break. Coming off a season-low 40.0% shooting performance against Minnesota, Ohio State was just 25.8% from the floor. The Scarlet Knights weren’t much better at 28.6%.

Initially, the Buckeyes were the team dominating the offensive glass. They had 10 offensive boards and seven second-chance points in the first 25 minutes of game time.

From that point forward, though, Rutgers stole the spotlight in that department. The Scarlet Knights piled up 11 rebounds on the offensive glass in the second half and overtime combined. And that resulted in 15 second-chance points across those two periods for head coach Steve Pikiell’s team.

But neither team created much separation in the second half of a game that experienced 22 lead changes. Ohio State’s biggest cushion of the frame came with 10:45 remaining in regulation after Sensabaugh stacked five points in a row: first with a 3-pointer, then with a steal and layup that gave the Buckeyes a 43-38 advantage.

Before long, Rutgers erased that deficit, courtesy of a 9-2 surge that featured an and-one layup from McConnell.

The Buckeyes found themselves in foul trouble down the stretch. With just under seven minutes left in the second half, Key had four fouls, and both McNeil and Likekele had three fouls.

That made Okpara critical for Ohio State, and he embraced that opportunity. The 6-foot-11 first year put the Buckeyes ahead, 53-52, with a tip-in putback. Okpara ended with four points, five rebounds, two blocks and two fouls in just 16 minutes.

Key, not Okpara was in, for the final minutes of the period. And, because Key had four fouls, he couldn’t contest Omoruyi on the roll. So he and the Buckeyes watched as the Rutgers center hammered another alley-oop, this one staking the Scarlet Knights to a 57-55 lead with 1:44 to go in regulation.

Then Sensabaugh hit the equalizer: a mid-range, pull-up jumper with 49 ticks on the clock.

The star freshman had a chance to deliver again for the win, but his crossover 3-pointer ricocheted off the backboard and then the rim before falling into the hands of Spencer, who logged a game-high 21 points and raced downcourt to beat the buzzer like he did against Northwestern and Purdue.

This time, Spencer’s long-range attempt hit back iron.

But he accounted for Rutgers’ first field goal of overtime, signifying the beginning of yet another late-game letdown by the Buckeyes.

Even though Ohio State went toe-to-toe with the Scarlet Knights defensively, 13 turnovers, 14 offensive rebounds allowed and, most notably, a 34.3% clip did the Buckeyes in on the road.

Holtmann’s team is struggling to put it all together when the league’s best are clicking.