Ohio State defeats Penn State, 92-82, in high profile affair to extend winning streak to seven

Tony Carr’s name always brings up the hair on the back of Chris Holtmann’s neck. The Bryce Jordan Center hasn’t been a friend of the state of Ohio lately. The Nittany Lions were up eight in the second half of the opener between these two teams three weeks ago. For some reason, they never make it easy for the Buckeyes, and it was no different on Thursday.

Ohio State came out of halftime with a four-point advantage, but by the sixth minute of the second half he was looking at a 59-51 deficit. A 15-0 streak that included six points from Duane Washington Jr. and four points from CJ Walker put the Buckeyes back in the lead, 69-61, with 9:40 to go and they managed to secure a 92-82 victory. .

The country’s No.4 team improved to 18-4 overall and 12-4 in the Big Ten, avoiding what would have been a brutal loss just three days before a top-five home game with the Michigan.

Penn State, despite spending more than seven minutes in the middle of the second half goalless on the field, managed to stay competitive late. Seven had free throws and an Izaiah Brockington layup reduced the Buckeyes’ lead to 74-70 with 7:03 to go. A triple from EJ Liddell then extended his team’s advantage to nine points, but Myles Dread responded with a 3 on his own to make it 85-79 with 1:19 to go. But it never came close to that.

In a game without a shortage of points, EJ Liddell led the Buckeyes with 23 points despite fouling issues and a third foul with 17:19 to go and a fourth foul at 7:18 to play. Washington (21 points) and Walker (13 points) helped him a lot. Liddell and Washington scored 42 combined points on 21 combined shots.

The Buckeyes shot a ridiculous 56.6 percent from the field and had 11 of 20 3s. The Nittany Lions had a 45.6 shooting percentage, going 12 for 27 from a distance of 3 points.

Much like the Ohio State-Penn State opener several weeks ago, the Buckeyes controlled the vast majority of the first half.

They took a 9-2 lead with three consecutive Washington, Justin Ahrens and EJ Liddell going through the net, and after calling for 19 seconds before that, they didn’t fall behind the Nittany Lions. the rest of half. A 6-0 run extended Ohio State’s lead to 10 points with a Bucket Walker just under eight minutes into the game. A 9-0 Penn State run that included a 3-fact trio and ended with a disgruntled Chris Holtmann calling a timeout tied the game at 31 points each with 5:43 left in the first half. Ohio State managed to climb, 47-43, as the first half ended with Ahrens draining a triple at the end of time.

The triple final was emblematic of the first half: a lot of beauty and a lot of brands – for both teams. The Buckeyes had 1.516 points per possession in the first half, and the Nittany Lions scored 1.387 points per possession. Both scores were higher than either team had recorded in any previous game this season.

Then: Ohio State returns to Columbus for a massive home game with Michigan’s No.3 on Sunday. The game starts at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Other Notes

• Chris Holtmann has hinted that he will continue to use CJ Walker on the bench. That remained the case on Thursday, with the head coach using the same starting five he’s gone with since mid-January: Duane Washington Jr., Justin Ahrens, Judge Sueing, Kyle Young and EJ Liddell.

• The Buckeyes entered the game as five-point betting favorites to beat the Nittany Lions.

• Ohio State came into the day with an all-time 37-18 record against Penn State and an 11-8 mark at Bryce Jordan Center.

• It was the second of two regular season games between the Buckeyes and the Nittany Lions. However, they could still meet a third time in the Big Ten tournament depending on how the pitch shakes. Currently, Ohio State is slated for a double bye as Penn State entered the day with two wins to even advance to the quarterfinals where they could stand a chance for a third game against the Buckeyes.