No. 22 Ohio State vs. Notre Dame: First Half Notebook

Halftime Score: No. 22 Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 42

The Buckeyes got off to a pretty good start, but the closing two minutes were frustrating. Notre Dame closed the half on an 8-0 run and Ohio State trails by that margin at the break.

Great start by Ohio State shooting the ball over the first few minutes. They hit three 3-poiners in rhythm - Justice Sueing, C.J. Walker and Duane Washington Jr. all got an early bucket to help the Buckeyes start the game on a nice note. The problem is Notre Dame matched them shot-for-shot, a theme that continued for 20 minutes. The Irish hit four 3-balls early as well. Still, it was great to see the Scarlet and Gray shoot it well from the outside from the get-go.

I'm happy to see Musa Jallow back on the floor for the Buckeyes tonight. Chris Holtmann seemed reasonably optimistic on Monday that Jallow would be able to get on the floor again. He missed the last two games for Ohio State with a leg injury.

This has been a 3-point shooting barrage from both teams as the first half rolled along. The Buckeyes connected on six of their first 10 3-pointers. At that point, half of Ohio State's shots on the night had come from deep. During that same stretch of time, 14 of Notre Dame's 22 shots had been 3-pointers. Here are the full first half stats:

As often happens, the game had been fairly streaky. Both teams have had a few small good scoring runs.

Justin Ahrens is having his best game of the year - and the Buckeyes really need him. He's hit all three of his first three 3-point tries tonight. Ahrens is unequivocally their best deep-ball shooter.

The biggest problem the Buckeyes face right now is defending Cormac Ryan and Dane Goodwin. Ryan has buried a couple of really good looks, including two from deep. He's been terrific so far and Goodwin is a really pure shooter that has gotten into a good rhythm. Ryan has 15 already tonight.

On the flip side, Ohio State has done a pretty solid job defending Prentiss Hubb, who has been lights out for the Irish so far in 2020. He's averaging more than 20 points per game, but he's had a hard time getting great looks so far. He's still been effective dishing the ball to teammates though.

I'm looking for E.J. Liddell to get it going in the second half. Liddell has six rebounds and has played hard tonight - he's been right in the thick of things under the rack - but he's scoreless from the floor in five tries, with just two free throws to his credit.

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