Ice In Their Veins! Buckeyes Come Back to Beat Iowa on Freezing Cold Night in Iowa City!
On a night where the 3-point shot was falling faster than the snowflakes in Iowa City, the No. 7 Ohio State Buckeyes outlasted No. 8 Iowa for their marquee win of the season.
Justin Ahrens got rolling just in the nick of time, connecting on three triples with less than five minutes to play, lifting the Buckeyes to a 89-85 win.
The teams combined for 28 made 3-pointers: 14 a piece. Ohio State's closing ability at the end of the game was their best effort of the season when they put Iowa away.
In many ways, the first half was a typical, tough Big Ten game - only with two of the four most efficient offenses in the country slugging it out. Iowa's depth outshined Ohio State's top scorers in a 3-point game at the break. Both teams protected the ball well,
While Ohio State did not do a very good job rebounding the ball in the opening ten minutes, they proceeded to absolutely own the glass the rest of the night.
A cold start to the second half for the Buckeyes dug them a tough hole. After making an opening 3-pointer, the Scarlet and Gray missed six straight shots from the floor and went scoreless from the field for nearly six minutes, Iowa had opened a 61-50 lead.
But whatever happened during that sequence, something woke up the Buckeyes.
But Duane Washington drilled back-to-back 3-pointers within about 30 seconds of each other. The team took a tougher mentality on the defensive end and brought it to 63-61 just two minutes later.
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Kyle Young hit a layup as the Buckeyes broke a full-court press and gave the team a 67-66 lead with 10:12 to play - quite a turn of events.
After an ice cold night shooting the ball, Justin Ahrens finally buried a 3-pointer with 4:22 to play. He followed with another one the next trip up the floor to make it 82-78 Ohio State. They would never trail again, although Iowa made it tight at the end of the game.
Four Buckeyes finished in double-figures, led by Kyle Young, Duane Washington, E.J. Liddell's 16 points. Justice Sueing had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Much more to come after Chris Holtmann's postgame press conference, which you can watch live below. If you miss it live, you can re-watch it here.
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