The Ohio State basketball team just got a huge win on the road, and it was against a familiar foe — Michigan. It’s been hard enough to win away from home this year in the Big Ten, but Ohio State has now done it the last two times out. First against Northwestern, and now against That School Up North.
The game was tight all the way throughout, but the Buckeyes did just enough down the stretch to pull out a hard-fought 61-58 victory. To do it though, they had to fight through a lot of adversity.
For starters, Ohio State couldn’t keep Michigan off the glass on offense. The Wolverines grabbed fourteen offensive rebounds, giving them extra possessions to make up for a poor shooting night. OSU also lost the ball-handling skills of Luther Muhammad midway through the second half that cut into the bench and changed the rotations.
But it didn’t matter much.
That’s because there were some extremely positive things going too. Ohio State only turned the ball over eight times for the entire game, and made seven three-pointers to equalize the effort on the glass by Michigan.
Earned it#Team121 #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/Ff7TR2GnaK
— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) February 5, 2020
It was an evenly played game throughout, but it was a controversial call at the end that gave Ohio State the opportunity to win the game. Michigan guard Zavier Simpson drove to the rim down one with under a minute left and drew a shooting foul. However, he also pulled on Kyle Young’s jersey, ripping it on the way to the ground. After a lengthy review, Simpson was assessed a flagrant one giving Ohio State two shots and the ball.
Simpson hit his two free throws for the common foul, then Young was clutch and buried his two to give the Buckeyes the one-point lead. On the ensuing possession, C.J. Walker also got fouled and nailed two free throws. Michigan had one last chance but was unable to nail the game-tying three.
Game over.
With the win, Ohio State improves to 15-7 overall and pulls within one game of .500 (5-6) in the Big Ten. More importantly, it’s a quad 1 win on the road that gets the Buckeyes further away from bubble territory.
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