Ohio State Buckeyes beat Illinois
The last time Ohio State played Illinois, it went so poorly for the Buckeyes that they weren’t permitted to wear any gear displaying their team name in the ensuing practices.
That was on Jan. 24, a 69-60 road loss that was more decisive than the score indicated. Having broken a five-game losing streak with a blowout win against Iowa, the Buckeyes went to the State Farm Center, led for less than four minutes and trailed by what was a season-high 17 points.
Now after the rematch, the Buckeyes might never take their jerseys off. Riding a nine-game losing streak and having dropped 14 of its past 15 games, Ohio State (12-17, 4-14 Big Ten) built a first-half lead, withstood a strong second-half challenge and – finally – won a game, 72-60.
“We played like we were supposed to win today, and it showed,” said Ohio State forward Justice Sueing.
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Illinois (19-10, 10-8) made the Buckeyes work for it. A 3-pointer from Jayden Epps with 6:53 left cut Ohio State’s lead to 53-52, but Sueing scored off his own miss to start a game-winning run.
After an Epps 3-point miss at the other end, OSU freshman Brice Sensabaugh threw down the dunk of the year to energize the crowd. Seeing the transition opportunity, Sensabaugh accelerated from the left wing, sized up 6-foot-9, 225-pound Illinois wing Matthew Mayer and hammered home a powerful, right-handed dunk to push the lead to five points.
With the crowd roaring, Sensabaugh’s scream as Mayer hit the deck matched the pent-up feelings of having gone 36 days without a win. And when Bruce Thornton scored, drew a foul and flexed toward the crowd with 3:37 to play, a middle-school-aged fan wearing a personalized football jersey flexed back in celebration.
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“He’s very sneaky athletic for his size, so people don’t really expect him to jump that high, so when he did it, everybody’s reaction was so surprised,” Thornton said of Sensabaugh’s dunk. “I’m still surprised right now. I’m gonna go look at it after this interview, because it was very insane. I feel like that gave extra momentum in that second half to get the win.”
It was that kind of afternoon at Value City Arena. In ending the longest losing streak since the 1997-98 season, the Buckeyes got a little bit of everything from a two-handed dunk by Sean McNeil to a behind-the-back save by Sueing to prevent a late-game turnover.
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Most importantly, they got a win, their first since Jan. 21 and only their second since New Year’s Day. Ohio State led for the final 36:45, and by the end the fans were filming the final seconds. Before running into the locker room, most of the Buckeyes made a point to high-five the front row of the Buckeye Nuthouse student section.
“It’s the best thing about it,” Holtmann said of seeing that excitement from his players. “That, and seeing my wife happy, and my daughter. That’s the best thing about it, seeing those guys smile, seeing them really enjoy, have fun playing today, enjoy the moment, enjoy the fun plays that happened in the midst of the game.”
Thornton led the Buckeyes with 20 points while Sensabaugh and Sueing each had 14. Ohio State made its final seven shots of the game.
“Credit to Ohio State,” said Illinois coach Brad Underwood. “Lose nine in a row and they didn’t quit. This is a very talented Ohio State team on the offensive side. Very disappointing from our standpoint.”
Ahead 12 at the half, Ohio State scored on the opening possession when Sueing found Felix Okpara for an alley-oop dunk behind the Illinois defense and was ahead 43-32 when the Illini offense finally started humming. Ty Rogers tipped in a miss, Jayden Epps followed with a layup and Terrence Shannon Jr. posted consecutive three-point plays for a 10-0 run that cut the Ohio State lead to 45-41 less than five minutes into the half.
It set the tone for what was to come.
Illinois opened the scoring and simultaneously revealed a surprise in the crowd. When Matthew Mayer buried a 3-pointer on the third possession of the game, several rows of orange-clad Illinois students occupying section 331 leapt to their feet in applause.
The Orange Krush had made the trip to Columbus, and in an arena with plenty of available seating in the upper bowl they were going to make their presence felt. When Coleman Hawkins make it a 5-0 lead, they roared even louder. Then Thornton got the offense going with consecutive field goals to pull within one, and when Okpara cored on a feed from fellow freshman Sensabaugh the Buckeyes had their first lead of the game.
It was part of an 8-0 run, and the offense kept coming as the lead grew. Thornton had six of the first eight points, then fed Roddy Gayle for a dunk on a backdoor cut and later took a charge on…
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