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Ohio State survives first-round scare vs Cornell, advances in NIT 88-83
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
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Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
Those nerds from New York can play a little bit, eh?
The Ohio State men’s basketball team (21-13) didn’t make the NCAA Tournament, but head coach Jake Diebler was clear after the Big Ten Tournament that if there was a trophy to be won in post-season play, his guys wanted to win it. With that in mind, the Buckeyes accepted a bid to play in the NIT, and were placed as the 2-seed. That set them up against the 7-seed, the Cornell Big Red (22-8).
With the top level of the Schottenstein Center draped off and the large purple and orange NIT logo emblazoned on the floor, Ohio State took the floor in hopes of bringing home post-season hardware for the first time during the Jake Diebler era.
In his first ever game as the official head coach, Diebler went with a starting lineup of Bruce Thornton, Roddy Gayle Jr., Jamison Battle, Evan Mahaffey, and Felix Okpara. Cornell head coach Brian Earl, in his seventh season, went with a starting lineup of Isaiah Gray, Keller Boothby, Nazir Williams, Cooper Noard, and Sean Hansen.
Cornell won the tip and scored within five seconds, with Williams scoring on a layup to stun Ohio State awake. The Buckeyes went on a 6-2 run to take the lead early, but Cornell swung back with an 8-0 run over 51 seconds to force Diebler to use his first timeout as head coach, with the visitors leading 12-6. The Buckeyes started the game 1-6 on layups, including four misses by Okpara.
A tie up between AK Okereke and Zed Key on the ground sent the game to a timeout with 7:52 remaining and Cornell still up, 24-20. The Big Red were doing a good job jumping over screens and stopping Thornton from taking shots, and the rest of the team struggled to see the ball into the basket. Noard had a pair of three-pointers for Cornell by the under-eight to help keep Ohio State at bay.
Ohio State went on a 10-0 run to briefly take the lead, but Cornell responded with a 9-0 run themselves and went back ahead 33-26 with 4:46 remaining in the first half. However, Devin Royal and Bruce Thornton responded with back-to-back threes, making it 33-32 at the under-four media timeout with 3:50 remaining.
The Buckeyes closed the first half on a 12-2 run over the final 2:52, which included back-to-back triples from Battle and carried Ohio State to a 44-38 halftime lead. After hitting just three of their first 15 shots over the first 4+ minutes, the Buckeyes finished the half by shooting an even 50% (14-28) throughout the rest of the half. Gayle and Battle each had 10 in the first half. Cornell shot 41.2% overall and 40% from three, but were doubled up on the glass in the first half, 32-16.
Cornell cut the Ohio State lead to a single point five minutes into the second half, getting four quick buckets from Gray, who nearly tied his season average of 9.1 points per game in the first five minutes of the second half alone. Then, Guy Ragland Jr. scored on back-to-back possessions — including his third three-pointer of the game — to take the lead back, 57-56. The Big Red outscored Ohio state 19-12 over the first 6:36 of the second half after it looked like the Buckeyes might run away with it after getting so hot to end the first half.
By the under-12 timeout, Cornell was still hanging on to a slim lead, 61-60. With 10:18 left in the game, Bonner tried to feed Key below the basket, but Key was held and was unable to move forward and receive the bounce pass. No foul was called, it went as a Dale Bonner turnover, and the crowd rained boos down on the officials. Cornell held on to its one-point lead at the second-to-last media timeout.
Ohio State went on a 9-2 run to go ahead 71-66 with 6:17 remaining, but Jake Fiegen answered with a triple for Cornell to get it back to 71-69. Bowen Hardman then checked in for the first time and promptly knocked down his first three-pointer since February 13 at Wisconsin to make it 74-69 Ohio State.
Cornell got another triple from Fiegen and a basket from Noard to make it 75-74 Ohio State, and then Earl called timeout with 3:25 remaining. The Bid Red weren’t shooting the three ball at a high clip, but they were taking a lot of them and hitting timely ones that answered every big Ohio State basket.
Ohio State’s Ivy League foe pushed them harder than many people thought they would in Jake Diebler’s first official game as head coach, but the Buckeyes squeaked it out in the final minutes, 88-83 to advance to the second round of the NIT.
If you weren’t around Tuesday night to catch Ohio State’s opening-round win in the NIT, here are a few key moments and plays that played a part in the Buckeyes’ win:
Cornell ran out to an early lead partially because Ohio State missed so many layups in the opening minutes — most of which were on Okpara. The sophomore center hit two of his first six shots, missing simply reverse layups and putbacks that he typically would hit. Okpara was shooting 58.4% on the season entering this game — the highest mark on the team.
The Buckeyes were 3-of-15 shooting to start the game.
Ohio State dominated Cornell on the glass in the first half in a way we have not seen from this team yet this season, but they weren’t making much of it. Despite grabbing 11 offensive rebounds in the first half, the Buckeyes only scored five second-chance points due their sudden struggles to make layups.
Jake Diebler’s team was nearly doubling up Cornell in rebounds and shots for much of the first half, and were running good sets to create open looks. They just were not falling early.
Ending the first half cold and stumbling into the locker room became a bad habit this team developed early in the season. Not so much today.
After falling behind 33-26 with 4:46 remaining in the half, Ohio State outscored Cornell 18-5 the rest of the way and took a six-point lead into the locker room. The Buckeyes rotated better on screens to stop the open layups Cornell had dropped in early in the half, and got better looks for Thornton and Battle on the other end that helped turn the tide.
He may have only hit 39 of them this season, but Guy Ragland Jr. entered this game as Cornell’s most efficient three-point shooter, knocking down 40.9% of his treys before today’s game. After hitting two of them in the first half, Ragland knocked down his third of the game with 13:56 remaining in the game to put Cornell up, 55-54. The bucket was part of a greater 9-3 run that got the Big Red back in the game.
With Ohio State up 62-61 and 9:13 left in the game, the 6-foot-3 Gray found a seam, caught a bounce pass, and threw down a massive dunk over the top of 6-foot-11 Felix Okpara. After the dunk, Gray followed Okpara for several steps, staring directly at him until the ref gestured for Gray and Okpara to start moving before things escalated.
Two minutes later, with Ohio State back up 67-66, Okpara went up for a layup and was fouled by Gray. The basket counted, and Ohio State went up 69-66 with 7:12 remaining.
After Gray’s layup put Cornell up 81-79 with 1:04 remaining, Battle gunned a three-pointer from the corner opposite Ohio State’s bench and buried it, putting the Buckeyes up 82-81 with 35 seconds remaining.
Ohio State (21-13) will play the winner of Virginia-Tech and Richmond on Saturday, with a tipoff time that is still to be determined. The game will be played at the Schottenstein Center, and tickets can be purchased at OhioStateBuckeyes.com.
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Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
Those nerds from New York can play a little bit, eh?
The Ohio State men’s basketball team (21-13) didn’t make the NCAA Tournament, but head coach Jake Diebler was clear after the Big Ten Tournament that if there was a trophy to be won in post-season play, his guys wanted to win it. With that in mind, the Buckeyes accepted a bid to play in the NIT, and were placed as the 2-seed. That set them up against the 7-seed, the Cornell Big Red (22-8).
With the top level of the Schottenstein Center draped off and the large purple and orange NIT logo emblazoned on the floor, Ohio State took the floor in hopes of bringing home post-season hardware for the first time during the Jake Diebler era.
In his first ever game as the official head coach, Diebler went with a starting lineup of Bruce Thornton, Roddy Gayle Jr., Jamison Battle, Evan Mahaffey, and Felix Okpara. Cornell head coach Brian Earl, in his seventh season, went with a starting lineup of Isaiah Gray, Keller Boothby, Nazir Williams, Cooper Noard, and Sean Hansen.
Cornell won the tip and scored within five seconds, with Williams scoring on a layup to stun Ohio State awake. The Buckeyes went on a 6-2 run to take the lead early, but Cornell swung back with an 8-0 run over 51 seconds to force Diebler to use his first timeout as head coach, with the visitors leading 12-6. The Buckeyes started the game 1-6 on layups, including four misses by Okpara.
A tie up between AK Okereke and Zed Key on the ground sent the game to a timeout with 7:52 remaining and Cornell still up, 24-20. The Big Red were doing a good job jumping over screens and stopping Thornton from taking shots, and the rest of the team struggled to see the ball into the basket. Noard had a pair of three-pointers for Cornell by the under-eight to help keep Ohio State at bay.
Ohio State went on a 10-0 run to briefly take the lead, but Cornell responded with a 9-0 run themselves and went back ahead 33-26 with 4:46 remaining in the first half. However, Devin Royal and Bruce Thornton responded with back-to-back threes, making it 33-32 at the under-four media timeout with 3:50 remaining.
The Buckeyes closed the first half on a 12-2 run over the final 2:52, which included back-to-back triples from Battle and carried Ohio State to a 44-38 halftime lead. After hitting just three of their first 15 shots over the first 4+ minutes, the Buckeyes finished the half by shooting an even 50% (14-28) throughout the rest of the half. Gayle and Battle each had 10 in the first half. Cornell shot 41.2% overall and 40% from three, but were doubled up on the glass in the first half, 32-16.
Cornell cut the Ohio State lead to a single point five minutes into the second half, getting four quick buckets from Gray, who nearly tied his season average of 9.1 points per game in the first five minutes of the second half alone. Then, Guy Ragland Jr. scored on back-to-back possessions — including his third three-pointer of the game — to take the lead back, 57-56. The Big Red outscored Ohio state 19-12 over the first 6:36 of the second half after it looked like the Buckeyes might run away with it after getting so hot to end the first half.
By the under-12 timeout, Cornell was still hanging on to a slim lead, 61-60. With 10:18 left in the game, Bonner tried to feed Key below the basket, but Key was held and was unable to move forward and receive the bounce pass. No foul was called, it went as a Dale Bonner turnover, and the crowd rained boos down on the officials. Cornell held on to its one-point lead at the second-to-last media timeout.
Ohio State went on a 9-2 run to go ahead 71-66 with 6:17 remaining, but Jake Fiegen answered with a triple for Cornell to get it back to 71-69. Bowen Hardman then checked in for the first time and promptly knocked down his first three-pointer since February 13 at Wisconsin to make it 74-69 Ohio State.
Cornell got another triple from Fiegen and a basket from Noard to make it 75-74 Ohio State, and then Earl called timeout with 3:25 remaining. The Bid Red weren’t shooting the three ball at a high clip, but they were taking a lot of them and hitting timely ones that answered every big Ohio State basket.
Ohio State’s Ivy League foe pushed them harder than many people thought they would in Jake Diebler’s first official game as head coach, but the Buckeyes squeaked it out in the final minutes, 88-83 to advance to the second round of the NIT.
If you weren’t around Tuesday night to catch Ohio State’s opening-round win in the NIT, here are a few key moments and plays that played a part in the Buckeyes’ win:
Blowing it below the basket
Cornell ran out to an early lead partially because Ohio State missed so many layups in the opening minutes — most of which were on Okpara. The sophomore center hit two of his first six shots, missing simply reverse layups and putbacks that he typically would hit. Okpara was shooting 58.4% on the season entering this game — the highest mark on the team.
The Buckeyes were 3-of-15 shooting to start the game.
Bullies on the boards...but for what?
Ohio State dominated Cornell on the glass in the first half in a way we have not seen from this team yet this season, but they weren’t making much of it. Despite grabbing 11 offensive rebounds in the first half, the Buckeyes only scored five second-chance points due their sudden struggles to make layups.
Jake Diebler’s team was nearly doubling up Cornell in rebounds and shots for much of the first half, and were running good sets to create open looks. They just were not falling early.
Buckeye blitz to end the first half
Ending the first half cold and stumbling into the locker room became a bad habit this team developed early in the season. Not so much today.
After falling behind 33-26 with 4:46 remaining in the half, Ohio State outscored Cornell 18-5 the rest of the way and took a six-point lead into the locker room. The Buckeyes rotated better on screens to stop the open layups Cornell had dropped in early in the half, and got better looks for Thornton and Battle on the other end that helped turn the tide.
Ragland gets hot, Cornell takes the lead back
He may have only hit 39 of them this season, but Guy Ragland Jr. entered this game as Cornell’s most efficient three-point shooter, knocking down 40.9% of his treys before today’s game. After hitting two of them in the first half, Ragland knocked down his third of the game with 13:56 remaining in the game to put Cornell up, 55-54. The bucket was part of a greater 9-3 run that got the Big Red back in the game.
Gray stares down Okpara, gets it back minutes later
With Ohio State up 62-61 and 9:13 left in the game, the 6-foot-3 Gray found a seam, caught a bounce pass, and threw down a massive dunk over the top of 6-foot-11 Felix Okpara. After the dunk, Gray followed Okpara for several steps, staring directly at him until the ref gestured for Gray and Okpara to start moving before things escalated.
Two minutes later, with Ohio State back up 67-66, Okpara went up for a layup and was fouled by Gray. The basket counted, and Ohio State went up 69-66 with 7:12 remaining.
Battle’s three puts Ohio State back up, 82-81
After Gray’s layup put Cornell up 81-79 with 1:04 remaining, Battle gunned a three-pointer from the corner opposite Ohio State’s bench and buried it, putting the Buckeyes up 82-81 with 35 seconds remaining.
Up Next:
Ohio State (21-13) will play the winner of Virginia-Tech and Richmond on Saturday, with a tipoff time that is still to be determined. The game will be played at the Schottenstein Center, and tickets can be purchased at OhioStateBuckeyes.com.
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