How Amare Bynum's career night powered Ohio State’s 91

In a dominant 91-58 win against the Western Michigan Broncos, Ohio State had its best display of depth offensively with 11 players scoring and five finishing in double digits.

Western Michigan — who lost to Division II Northwood earlier in the season — struggled to keep up with Ohio State on either end of the court.

Ohio State controlled the entire game, outrebounding the Broncos 49-30 and shooting nearly 50% from the field. About 10 minutes into the game, the Broncos went on a 6-0 run and got within six points of the Buckeyes, but that was their strongest scoring spurt of the night.

Ohio State ran away with the game towards the end of the first half and never looked back, going on a 23-2 scoring run over a seven-minute stretch and holding the Broncos to just 24 points at halftime.

Christoph Tilly led the offense with 17 points and had a career-high seven assists. Tilly also had a strong supporting cast — John Mobley Jr. finished with 15, Bruce Thornton added 11, and Devin Royal had a solid showing with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Ohio State Buckeyes center Christoph Tilly (13) shoots the ball against Western Michigan Broncos forward Hudson Ward (8) in the first half of the NCAA basketball game at Value City Arena on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Columbus, Ohio. | Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Most notably, it was a career night for freshman Amare Bynum who finished with a double-double and career-high 12 points and 10 rebounds.

The performance was the confidence boost Bynum needed as he adjusts to the pace of college play. “My work is paying off,” Bynum said. “I can actually be at this level.”

OSU’s head coach Jake Diebler knows there’s a high ceiling for Bynum on the court, but he also praised him for his attitude day-in and day-out. “He’s already becoming just an all-time favorite guy to coach because he plays with unbelievable joy,” Diebler said. “And it’s not a joy that lacks competitive spirit or toughness and physicality, he just loves the game and comes to work with a smile, but plays with toughness too.”

Even though it was a blowout win, Diebler wasn’t coaching based on the score.

“I was coaching possession by possession because we’ve got a lot to work on and get better at,” Diebler said. “We broke the game up into segments. I learned this from Thad Matta when I worked for him. We talk about winning those four-minute segments and that’s what the focus was today. I don’t even know what we were up quite honestly in some of them because it was just consumed with playing at a high level on both sides of the ball.”

Overall, Diebler was impressed with his team’s performance on both sides of the ball, and plans to continue evaluating lineup analytics as the sample size gets larger to see which combinations he’s liking best.

Ohio State’s next game won’t be as simple as they face a solid Mount St. Mary’s team on Tuesday, Nov. 26 at 6:30 p.m. at Value City Arena.