Ohio State has been two different teams this year, on a couple of notes. There’s the home Buckeye squad and the road OSU team. There’s also been pre-conference Ohio State and in-conference Ohio State. The good one on both accounts showed up Sunday against Maryland in a 79-72 victory.
It all started with what had been the bugaboo for the Buckeyes, turnovers. Ohio State leads the Big Ten in turnovers during conference play, and it’s resulted in an under .500 record in the league coming into this one — especially because of the issues on the road.
Today though, the Buckeyes had just four turnovers in the first half, and only ten for the game. You’d still like it to be a little better in the second stanza, but it wasn’t a landslide of turnovers like we’ve seen before.
But it was more than that. Ohio State got on the boards — outrebounding the Terps 36-27 (13 on the offensive end), shot the ball well from beyond the arc, and played solid defense against a very athletic and skilled Maryland team. It had five players score in double figures. Heck, it even got some unexpected scoring from an unlikely source.
Luther Muhammad led all scorers in the game with 22 points, well above his 6.3 average for the year. He also played solid defense on Terrapin guard Anthony Cowan and had an all-around solid floor game.
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— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) February 23, 2020
Maryland tightened things up in the second half, but Ohio State never let the lead get closer than three points, and at one point knocked down 21-straight free throws to salt this one away.
With the win, Ohio State improves its record to 18-9, 8-8 in the Big Ten. It’s also a huge, quality Quad 1 win to add to an already impressive collection of wins this year. The bottom line is that the Buckeyes just notched one in their belt that almost locks them into the NCAA Tournament, barring an absolute collapse.
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