Instant Recap: #15 Oregon holds on to win 73-71 over Ohio State

Oregon will get it’s first road test of the new calendar year against yet another Quad 1 opponent. The Ducks travel to Columbus, Ohio to take on the Buckeyes, for the first time and potentially only time this season. The Ducks come in ranked No. 15 in the AP Poll, No. 27 in KenPom, and No. 19 in the Net rankings. Ohio State comes in unranked in the AP Poll, No. 30 in KenPom, and No. 30 in Net. The Buckeyes are favored in this matchup by 2.5.

Ohio State’s Meechie Johnson will remain out for this game, and is away from the team with a personal matter. Johnson started his career at Ohio State for two seasons before transferring to South Carolina for the last two, and now is back at Ohio State.

First Half:

Oregon is sticking with their usual starting lineup of Jackson Shelstad, TJ Bamba, Jadrian Tracey, Brandon Angel, and Nate Bittle. Ohio State will start Bruce Thornton, John Mobley Jr, Micah Parrish, Devin Royal, and Sean Stewart today.

TJ Bamba scores the first bucket for the Ducks tonight, he’s been 10/30 in his last 5. Hopefully Bamba can keep it up. Jackson Shelstad knocks down a three pointer the possession after, a good sign for him.

At the first media timeout, the Ducks trail 9-10 with 15:51 to play in the first half. Shelstad and Bamba have all 9 for Oregon.

Oregon on a 7-0 run over the last 2 minutes and have taken the lead 12-10. Timeout on the floor and Shelstad will be at the line to shoot two when coverage returns. All tied up at 12 with 11:15 to play in the first half. Both teams are shooting under 35% from the field, Ohio State also under 35% from deep.

Jackson Shelstad knocks down both free throws and then traps Ohio State in the half court set, forcing them to call timeout.

Double Flagrant assessed to Brandon Angel and Micah Parrish. Really odd call, but Micah Parrish picks up his second foul of the game.

Nate Bittle was completely out of control on that last layup and after he fell, he hurt himself. Looks like he’s grabbing at his wrist. Ducks trail 18-20 with 7:43 to play in the first half.

Jackson Shelstad knocks down another three and ties the game back up at 23. Aaron Bradshaw picks up his second foul for Ohio State, two key players getting in some foul trouble.

Oregon trails 23-28 with 3:54 left in the half. These refs have been really bad in the first half, Supreme Cook got fouled on the offensive possession before and it wasn’t called, then there’s even less contact on defense and Supreme gets charged with a foul.

TJ Bamba has now picked up his third foul, after an offensive foul, and he hits the bench.

Ducks trail 27-32 at the half. What an ugly second 10 minutes of the half, Ohio State played a double overtime game just a few days ago and don’t look gassed at all. The offense has come to a complete halt and phantom fouls are all over the place right now. Oregon’s offensive effort has been horrific however, and they are now shooting 9/31 (29%) from the floor, and 3/14 (21.4%) from deep. Ohio State hasn’t shot well either by any means, going 11/30 (36.7%) from the floor, and 3/9 (33.3%) from downtown. Oregon leads the rebounding battle 22-18, but has 1 more turnover than the Buckeyes.

Jackson Shelstad unsurprisingly leads the team in points at half with 12, Nate Bittle has 7 and both TJ Bamba and Keeshawn Barthelemy have another 4. Nobody else has scored for Oregon outside of these 4 players, and it’s worth the reminder than TJ Bamba has 3 personal fouls.

Second Half:

Jadrian Tracey knocks down his first bucket of the game, 29-32 Ohio State still leads.

Brandon Angel picks up his second foul with 16:43 to play, Ducks trailing 32-39.

Ra’Heim Moss will be at the line for two out of the timeout. Oregon is trailing Ohio State 35-43 with 14:48 remaining in the game. Still really no offense besides Shelstad and Bittle, and the defensive effort has fallen off.

Jackson Shelstad is heating up, with now 19 points in the game, he’s going to have to carry the load here. Unfortunately Micah Parrish has back to back threes for Ohio State. Nate Bittle now buries a three, and Oregon has cut the lead down to five. Ducks fighting, but down 44-49 with 13:05 left.

TJ Bamba makes a very tough layup and gets fouled, is unable to knock down the free throw though. Ducks are trailing 46-52. Now Brandon Angel follows a Nate Bittle miss and is able to tip it in plus the foul. Angel converts the and-one but still trail by 5. Brandon Angel is fouled by Bruce Thornton and knocks down both free throws.

After a Thornton three and a Barthelemy turnover, Ohio State is up 57-51 over Oregon with 7:19 to go.

Kwame Evans gets a tough layup to fall and draws the foul, now 4 fouls on Evan Mahaffey. Evans knocks down the free throw and it is again a 5 point game. Nate Bittle knocks down a huge three pointer and we have a 2 point game in Columbus. 59-61 Ducks trailing with 5:05 remaining.

Brandon Angel simply cannot guard Bruce Thornton and Thornton hits the floater. Ohio State up 59-65 with 3:42 left, Dana Altman calls timeout. Nate Bittle drills a HUGE three pointer to cut the Buckeye lead down to 3 points. Now Keeshawn Barthelemy drills a three pointer and the lead is back down to 2 points. Oregon fighting very hard with 2:13 left in the game, down 65-67. Impressive tidbit here, Keeshawn Barthelemy has passed 1,000 career points.

Jackson Shelstad just demolished the Ohio State defender’s ankles and drills a three to give Oregon the lead 68-67. TJ Bamba hits the floater and the Ducks are up 70-67 with 37.2 seconds to play. Evan Mahaffey gets the putback off of the missed three to go, Ducks still lead 70-69, 23.4 left and Oregon has the ball. Ducks turn the ball over after Shelstad gets trapped in the corner, and throws the ball away. The John Mobley Jr gets fouled by Bittle on the shot. Mobley makes both free throws and Ohio State leads 71-70. Shelstad sprints down the floor and draws a foul, heading to the line. Two shots. Jackson Shelstad hits both and after the Bruce Thornton misses, rebounded by Bittle. He is fouled with 0.6 and he will shoot two free throws. Nate Bitte makes the first and then Ohio State calls timeout.

Bittle intentionally misses the second and Bruce Thornton cant connect on the full court heave. Ducks hold on to win 73-71 in a very wild game, Oregon is now 6-1 when trailing at halftime.

Postgame Notes:

Shelstad and Bittle led the way for Oregon (unsurprisingly), scoring 24 and 21 respectfully. Outside of that, nobody was in double figures. The closest was TJ Bamba with 9 points tonight, still on a 37.5% shooting night. Angel and Tracey really did nothing all night but Brandon Angel had a few key free throws. Kwame Evans had a rough shooting night but I think he should start seeing more minutes with Brandon Angel’s play being as poor as it has been recently.

Nate Bittle blocked 3 shots tonight, and they were the only shots Oregon blocked all game. The Ducks shot 24/57 (42.1%) from the field, 9/25 (36%) from deep, and 16/22 (72.7%) from the charity stripe. Oregon held the Buckeyes to 24/57 (42.1%), 7/18 (38.9%), and 16/19 (84.2%). These really aren’t awful splits, especially from deep and I’m starting to understand the meaning behind Oregon being the luckiest power conference team.