Buckeyes Hot Stretch Continues with Sunday Afternoon Win Over Spartans
Chris Holtmann has made a habit of saying lately how historically good the Big Ten is this year - and it's not hyperbole, the league is as deep and talented as it's ever been.
That makes Ohio State's current run of form all that more impressive as the Buckeyes won in conference for the sixth time in their last seven games. Saturday's effort against Michigan State was awfully impressive as they moved to third place in the conference standings with a 79-62 win.
Michigan State registered a second straight loss, following one of their worst losses in Tom Izzo's legendary coaching tenure.
The Buckeyes took incredibly good care of the basketball in the first half, turning it over only once. Neither team went on a length scoring run, but two separate 7-0 and 8-0 runs for the Buckeyes helped them build a double-digit cushion by halftime. Justin Ahrens and Justice Sueing hit a couple of quick buckets late in the first period to push Ohio State to a 14-point lead and the Buckeyes led by 12 at the intermission.
Both teams came out of the locker room with sloppy play. Ohio State turned it over twice in the opening two minutes and struggled to find any rhythm through the first 10 minutes. But they made up for it nicely on the other end of the floor, forcing the Spartans into some challenging looks and low percentage shots. After nearly eight minutes, both teams were shooting under 34 percent from the floor in the half.
WATCH: Chris Holtmann Reacts to Beating Michigan State
Frankly the second half was a whistle-happy, disjointed mess. Michigan State consistently drew fouls from the Scarlet and Gray (nine fouls in 10 minutes), but the Buckeye defense totally silenced the Spartans' offense. They hit only 3-of-15 in the first 11 minutes before Joshua Langford hit back-to-back 3-pointers within 30 seconds of each other at the 9-minute mark.
Michigan State made things interesting with a 10-2 run with less than six minutes to play, punctuated by Aaron Henry poking away an in-bounds pass from C.J. Walker and laying in an easy bucket.
That caught the Buckeyes attention because it cut their lead down to nine points. Five minutes earlier, Ohio State had led by 20.
E.J. Liddell had a great start to the game with nine points through his first 11 minutes, but he cooled off a bit. Still he scored at least 20 points for the third time in four games to lead the Bucks to victory.
Sueing scored 17 on 4-of-7 shooting. Seth Towns also played well off the bench and hit a couple of memorable, highly-contested shots late in the shot clock. Towns finished with seven points.
Ohio State gave up only five points off nine turnovers (eight of which came in the second half). The Buckeyes also scored 28 points in the paint.
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