Once again, Buckeyes fall short in senior day battle at Michigan State
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Death, taxes and Michigan State winning on senior day.
A season of disappointment finally yielded some results in the final week of the regular season for Ohio State, which entered the Breslin Center on Saturday seeking a third straight win to close the regular season. Doing so would require not just beating a team that dominated the Buckeyes in Columbus only 20 days ago, but finding the type of success not seen for more than a decade.
Michigan State, which started four seniors against Ohio State’s four freshmen, hadn’t lost on senior day since 2011.
If there was an argument to be made for fate siding with the Buckeyes, it was with the date on the calendar. Michigan State had won 10 straight senior days, with the last loss coming thanks to a last-second William Buford jumper exactly 11 years to the date.
Buford wasn’t walking through that door, though. And this year’s Buckeyes, as has often been the case, fought throughout and threatened to make it interesting in the second half before closing the regular season with an 84-78 loss.
“I loved our guys’ approach,” OSU coach Chris Holtmann said. “I loved our guys’ spirit, the way they had about them, which was consistent with the way it’s been the last few weeks.”
Bruce Thornton’s 3-pointer with 5:40 to play got Ohio State (13-18, 5-15 Big Ten) within one possession for the first time since Michigan State (19-11, 11-8) led 7-4 in the opening minutes of the game. The Spartans called timeout, drew up a play and got the ball into the hands of A.J. Hoggard.
Matched up with Ohio State’s Isaac Likekele on the left wing, Hoggard dribbled down the shot clock, got an edge on the Ohio State fifth-year senior, beat a close-out attempt from Sean McNeil and finished at the rim to push the lead back to five points with 5:04 to play.
It was the final blow needed to keep Ohio State at bay and the kind of sequence that has continually sunk the Buckeyes this season. After consecutive empty offensive possessions, Hoggard drew a blocking foul on Likekele, hit both sides of the one-and-one free throws and the Michigan State lead was back up to 71-64.
With 5.9 seconds left, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo was able to sub out his seniors for a traditional center court kiss of the Spartans logo.
Hoggard led all scorers with 23 points. Freshman Brice Sensabaugh led Ohio State with 21 points while Justice Sueing flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 10 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and just one turnover.
Ohio State has lost nine straight games in the Breslin Center since Buford’s shot. The Buckeyes will open Big Ten tournament play Wednesday at Chicago’s United Center as the No. 13 seed.
“We’re going in there trying to win,” Sueing said. “We’re trying to make it as far as we can to get a Big Ten championship. I’m really confident in our guys. We’ve made a lot of strides, especially in these last couple of weeks, with our play and our togetherness.”
Ohio State finishes the year 1-9 in Big Ten road games, the first time it’s won just once away from home in conference play since the 1997-98 season.
Both teams traded points on the first four possessions of the game before history looked to be repeating itself for the Buckeyes. After a Sueing finish from the right block exactly one minute in, Ohio State went as frigid from the floor as the half-foot of snow that arrived here Friday evening. The Buckeyes didn’t score again until Felix Okpara hit a right-handed hook shot from the right baseline to break a scoreless drought that lasted for 6:54.
It didn’t apply to the Michigan State end of the court, however, and while Ohio State was missing eight straight shots and turning it over twice the Spartans were building a 13-point lead thanks to a 15-0 run. It created some separation that the Buckeyes would keep chasing, but unlike the first meeting between these teams the offense started to actually generate first-half points.
Down 25-14 after Joey Hauser hit a wide-open 3-pointer, Holtmann pulled Sensabaugh and McNeil for some pointed words and then delivered a fiery speech to his players in the huddle with 7:59 left in the half. Out of the huddle, Sueing hit two free throws and connected with Okpara for an alley-oop dunk before a McNeil 3-pointer pulled Ohio State within 25-21.
Michigan State answered with yet another 3-pointer, this time from Malik Hall, as Holtmann loudly argued in vain for a travel call on a mid-possession drive. It stemmed the tide and the Spartans closed the half with a 43-34 lead thanks to two key stats: their 3-point shooting and their ability to push the ball in transition. Michigan State went 8 for 14 from 3 (57.1%) through the first 20 minutes and outscored the Buckeyes 17-2 in fast-break points. It was two shy of the most allowed by Ohio State in an entire game this season.
With a 3-pointer 44 seconds into the second half, Sensabaugh became the sixth Ohio State freshman to reach the 500-point mark. The others: D’Angelo Russell, Michael…
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