Ohio State Didn't Hit Many 3-Pointers, But Timeliness was Key in Holding Off Cleveland State
The 3-pointer is the great equalizer in college basketball. Some teams live and die by it, others hope they can hit enough to make a difference throughout the game. But there's no denying it's critical part in the sport.
Despite the fact that Ohio State missed 10 straight 3-pointers over a 25 minute stretch, they were able to connect on a few absolutely critical shots as they held off a feisty Cleveland State team, 67-61 on Sunday afternoon.
The Buckeyes finished the game 6-for-21 from behind the 3-point line, but hit 4-of-10 in the second half when they needed them most.
The first of those instances broke the streak of misses. Duane Washington Jr. hit two in a row in the opening two minutes of the contest, but the Buckeyes went ice cold from deep. Finally, Justin Ahrens hit a 3-pointer with 13:15 left in the second half to snap that stretch of 10 straight misses.
More importantly, that 3-pointer took a 1-point lead for the Buckeyes and extended it to 41-37. It was the closest that Cleveland State got the rest of the way.
Ahrens didn't score in the first half, but he started in place of E.J. Liddell on Sunday. Liddell's absence was made public this week when head coach Chris Holtmann said he would be unavailable for the indefinite future because of a non-CoVID-related illness. Liddell was coming off a fantastic game at Notre Dame and his presence was definitely missed on Sunday.
Ahrens' emergence in the starting lineup also signaled that Holtmann wanted to inject Justin's hot hand into the offense more steadily. Ahrens connected on a few big 3's on Tuesday and the hope was that he would do the same against Cleveland State.
E.J. Liddell's absence, combined with Justice Sueing and Kyle Young's first half foul troubles, made for a very different looking Ohio State offense on Sunday. Frankly, they sputtered throughout the game. The offense was slow and clunky at times, too fast and out of control other times. C.J. Walker clearly felt the need to do more than usual and he played hard, but he couldn't do it alone.
With momentum mounting for the Vikings, Ohio State needed a spark.
Perhaps their first great, standalone defensive-to-offensive sequence of the entire game really helped the Buckeyes grab some momentum back. Zed Key's active hands in the middle of the paint got in a passing lane and caused a turnover. C.J. Walker brought it up the floor and on a creative cut, bounced a pass to Jimmy Sotos for a wide open 3-ball. Sotos buried it to put the Buckeyes up 47-39 and the Vikings called timeout with 8:53 to play.
The Ohio State bench was noticeably more excited, including Chris Holtmann who had to clenched fists and pumped his arms in excitement.
But Cleveland State wouldn't go away. This didn't look like a team that was on the wrong end of an all-time NCAA DI scoring run record last time out, when they surrendered 40 consecutive points to Ohio University. D'Moi Hodge connected on his second 3-pointer of the afternoon to pull within five.
Shortly thereafter, Sueing picked up his fourth foul with 7:46 to go and came off the floor. But in his absence, Ohio State dodged enough punches from the Vikings. Cleveland State never got closer than five points for the last 11 minutes of the half, although the Ohio State lead was never greater than nine.
Ahrens also hit a second 3-ball with 5:30 to play, immediately answering the bomb that Vikings guard Chris Greene hit on the other end the possession beforehand.
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