Ohio State Bludgeons Nebraska in Lopsided Affair
The best way to get a bad taste of a brutal loss out of your mouth is to come back the very next game and put a thumping on your next opponent.
And boy did the Buckeyes do that.
After leading by as many as 41 points in the second half and thanks to a couple of lopsided scoring runs, the Buckeyes obliterated Nebraska on Wednesday night, 90-54.
Ohio State's 36-point margin of victory is its biggest in conference play since 1991, when they beat Northwestern 104-62.
The Cornhuskers closed the first half by hitting just 1 of their final 18 shots from the floor, a stretch that lasted more than 13 minutes.
Nebraska tried to get off to a better start in the second half, but after surrendering two baskets in the first three minutes of the half, the Buckeyes went on a 21-2 run over the next 6:17 and put any Nebraska comeback hopes out of reach.
The Cornhuskers offense at times this year has been okay, but tonight was simply anemic. Their best offensive player this year, JUCO-transfer Teddy Allen who averages 18.2 points per game, picked up a fourth foul three minutes into the second half and had too sit on the bench for a bit. He's had four 20-point games this season, but was limited to just 13 tonight.
This was as decisive a performance as Ohio State has had all season. It's not that they shot the lights out (although they certainly had a good night, hitting 49 percent from the floor) or that any one player in particular played like a superstar (nobody scored more than 18 points). But the balanced offensive attack and suffocating defense gave Ohio State its most emphatic victory of the season.
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The Buckeyes scored 21 points off 15 Nebraska turnovers, while surrendering two points off 10 giveaways of their own.
In so many ways, this wasn't a spectacular game. There wasn't a whole lot in the individual stat lines on the box score that really grab your attention. But that's kind of the way the Buckeyes have played so far this season. It's not necessarily a star-studded team, but they've got a lot of really solid pieces and they're embracing the idea of the team being greater together than the sum of its parts.
Zed Key had a career-high 14 points on 5-of-5 shooting. He was one of five Buckeyes in double-figures on the night. Justin Ahrens hit six 3-pointers and helped the Scarlet and Gray feel much better about tonight's effort from deep, although most of them came after the outcome had long been decided. He led all scorers with 18 on the night.
E.J. Liddell was a monster in the first half, but was given much of the second half off. He played only 19 minutes and scored all eight points before half time. Same situation with C.J. Walker, who was effective throughout the first 20 minutes, but didn't see much of the floor after half time. In fact, no Buckeye played more than 23 minutes.
Not surprisingly, the Buckeye bench continued to excel. They contributed 47 points on Wednesday night and continue to be among the most effective bench unites in college basketball.
One thing that really helped Ohio State pull away - they got in the bonus pretty early in the second half. Nebraska committed its seventh foul with 13:43 left in the game. The Buckeyes are No. 28 in the nation at the free throw line and they hit 16-of-20 for the night.
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