Ohio State knocks off Michigan in a Big Ten Tournament semifinal. Three takeaways.

Ohio State survived a late surge by Michigan in a semifinal of the Big Ten Tournament Saturday. Here are three takeaways from the game.

Ohio State’s defense traveled to Indianapolis

It’s not always the case like some traditionalists would have you believe, but championships are rarely won without playing some good defense. For Ohio State, that’s been a hit and miss affair this basketball season, with head coach Chris Holtmann suggesting his team needed to be better on that side of the ball multiple times this season.

And for the longest time, it sure looked like the Buckeyes were going to have to use their highly efficient offense to beat teams and just hope to be adequate stopping other teams from scoring.

But not today.

OSU’s defense showed up big time against a high-scoring Michigan offense Saturday. It held the Wolverines to just 35.1 % shooting from the floor, and limited them to just 67 points — almost ten points below their average for the year. Hunter Dickinson got his, but everyone else was held pretty much in check by the Buckeye D.

Well done. Keep it going moving forward.

NEXT … Enjoy the ride despite the endings

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