Buckeyes comes back from a 16-point second-half deficit to beat Rutgers, 80-68

At 3:38 pm into the end of Wednesday’s game at the Schottenstein Center and things are sliding in the wrong direction, Ohio State looked in danger of losing its second straight Big Ten game to start the conference. Then came three 3 points in two minutes from Duane Washington Jr., a pair of buckets from Seth Towns and EJ Liddell getting almost anything he wanted.

Team	1	2	FINAL
# 11 RUTGERS	38	30	68
# 23 STATE OF OHIO	28	52	80

By the eighth minute, Ohio State had reduced the deficit to four points, and a Washington float with 4:54 to go tied it at 61 points apiece. Managing a frontcourt exhausted from injury and a foul issue, Rutgers had little response for the Buckeyes on the inside who took the lead for an 80-68 victory.

Ohio State finished the game on a 25-6 run to improve to 7-1 on the season and 1-1 in the Big Ten game. Rutgers fell to 5-1, losing their first game this year.

Liddell, the key to victory, dropped a career-high 21 points while making eight of 14 shots from the floor. He also grabbed six boards. With him and Kyle Young – a career-high 17 points and 12 rebounds – on the inside, Ohio State has done a good chunk of its damage at the bottom. Washington’s three 3s in the second half, however, paid off in the streak. The junior guard posted a career-high 22 points hitting four 3s and scoring 6 for 7s from the foul line.

Ohio State defeated Rutgers, 52-30, in the second half.

Harper, who came in second in the Big Ten today with 24 points per game, led the Scarlet Knights with 20 points. His team shot 41% from the field compared to Ohio State’s 47%.

Shortly after the tip-off, the Buckeyes retired to a 5-0 lead with a triple from Washington and a layup by contact from Young. However, it was the Ohio State’s biggest advance of the first half.

Just over four minutes into the game, the Scarlet Knights took the lead. And after 10 minutes, they took a double-digit lead. A Liddell and Young frontcourt scoring 16 of their team’s 28 points kept Ohio State close at hand, but the disparity behind the arc was too great for the home side. Ron Harper Jr. and Geo Baker each drained a pair of 3 points in the first half, with Rutgers combining to go 7 of 13 from the outside in the first 20 minutes. The Buckeyes, meanwhile, were only 1-for-10 in 3’s first-half attempts.

They entered the half trailing 38-28 with the 3 point gap standing out among all the rest.

Then: Ohio state heads to the northwest for a tilt route on Dec. 26. The match will start at 2 p.m. on Fox Sports 1.

Other Notes

• Chris Holtmann went with his typical starting five: CJ Walker, Duane Washington Jr., Judge Sueing, EJ Liddell and Kyle Young.

• Ibrahima Diallo (concussion) and Meechie Johnson (entered mid-year) did not play for the Buckeyes. Diallo’s return date is uncertain, but he went through a few warm-ups before the game. Johnson is expected to debut at some point in January after arriving on campus a few weeks ago.

• The state of Ohio plans to celebrate the holidays together, Holtmann said on Tuesday. The Buckeyes have a game on Boxing Day, but since the players can’t go home for the holidays, Holtmann’s wife and the players’ mothers have something in place for them.