Buckeyes fight until the final horn but are unable to claim victory in Indiana

Saturday Night was not the brand of basketball we are used to watching at Ohio State. Fourteen turnovers and shooting thirty-six percent from the field will not win you games. Assembly Hall is one of the toughest road environments in the country and it was nearly sold out for this game. Indiana was led by Malik Reneau who shot 10-16 and finished with 23 points. The Hoosiers seemed like the more physically and mentally tough team throughout the whole game. The Buckeyes were led by Jamison Battle’s 17 points and Felix Okpara’s career-high 15 rebounds in the loss.

The Buckeyes came into this matchup winning twelve of their last thirteen games, most recently a home win on Wednesday against Rutgers where Battle had a career day. Chris Holtmann was very impressed with the way his team played against Rutgers. He thought they battled until the end and proved that they could close out tough and important Big Ten games. He mentioned how he thought the team needed to get better in a few areas, but he was not too worried about it and knew the team he had.

Where The Game Shifted 

At halftime, the score was 38-37 Buckeyes. After a Trey Galloway foul on Zed Key with 0.4 seconds left in the half, Key made both of his free throw attempts. An Okpara dunk, a Gayle and-one jumper, and a Battle three put the Buckeyes up by nine at the eighteen-minute mark in the second half. The Hoosiers called a timeout which then started a six-minute cold stretch for Ohio State where Indiana chipped away at the lead. Indiana went up by 5 after the Buckeyes went cold once again, this time for four minutes. Indiana was able to then go up by ten points and maintain the lead for the rest of the game. Ohio State did gain life in the final thirty seconds when Okpara missed a free throw and Battle rebounded it, he then passed it to Roddy Gayle Jr who made a reverse layup to help put the deficient to two points again.

Chris Holtmann Post-Game Comments

Opening Statement… Hard fought game, give Indiana credit. They made a few more plays and a few more shots.

Q: On the amount of missed and made shots being the difference…

HOLTMANN: The initial thought is shooting being the key difference, but we will have to look at the tape. We certainly had some clean looks particularly off offensive rebounds and wide open looks that you want guys taking.

Q: On winning a Big Ten game on the road…

HOLTMANN: Nothing wrong. It’s hard to win on the road. We clawed back from down ten and cut it down to two. I actually felt great about that, but some players need to step up.

 Q: On the defense changes to guard Malik Renau…

 HOLTMANN: We’ll have to look at some things with him. We liked single coverage on him, particularly in the first half. When Felix (Okpara) wasn’t on him, it was an issue for us. We’ll have to look at making some adjustments.

Credit to Indiana University Athletics for the Post-Game Interview Transcript.

The Buckeyes will look to get back on track Wednesday at home when they welcome the #22-ranked Wisconsin Badgers to Value City Arena.

Featured image via: USA TODAY Sports