Ohio State Snaps Losing Streak in Impressive Win Against Illinois

Ohio State forward Brice Sensabaugh's emphatic second-half dunk shifted the course of the game, leading the Buckeyes to victory Sunday at Value City Arena.

Author:
Casey Smith
Feb 26, 2023 2:10 PM EST

In this story:

Ohio State Buckeyes

Illinois Fighting Illini

Maryland Terrapins

Iowa Hawkeyes

Breathe a sigh of relief Buckeye Nation, the losing streak is over.

The Ohio State Buckeyes (12-17, 4-14 Big Ten) snapped their nine-game losing streak Sunday against the Illinois Fighting Illini (19-10, 10-8 Big Ten) in a 72-60 win at Value City Arena. This marked the Buckeyes' first win since a 93-77 victory against the Iowa Hawkeyes on Jan. 21.

Despite an offensive cold spell that saw the Buckeyes score just 12 points in the first 12:38 of the second half and Illinois cutting what was at one point a 14-point lead down to one, a dunk changed everything.

With 5:53 to go in the second half, forward Brice Sensabaugh posterized forward Matthew Mayer in transition. On the next possession, Sensabaugh came down and hit a smooth turn-around fadeaway to extend Ohio State's lead back out to seven points.

Guard Bruce Thornton joined the late-second-half scoring barrage with back-to-back buckets, flexing and giving out a loud yell after an and-1 layup gave Ohio State a 64-53 lead with just under four minutes to go.

Thornton led the Buckeyes with 20 points — his fifth game in double figures in the last seven.

Ohio State made each of its final seven field goals to end the game.

Scoring was sparse to open the second half, though, as Illinois held an 8-4 advantage in the first 4:30 of play.

Guard Eugene Brown III's layup with 14:41 to go killed a 12-2 Illinois run that trimmed its deficit to just four points.

The Illini got second-half help from guard Terrence Shannon Jr., who scored eight of his 10 points in the final period. Shannon fouled out.

Forward Coleman Hawkins led all Illinois scorers with 14 points.

Ohio State used a 9-1 run across a 3:42 span in the first half, while Illinois shot just 1-for-10 across a 6.5 minutes span to open a 17-9 lead — its largest lead in a game since beating Iowa by 16 Jan. 21 — at the under-12-minute timeout.

The Buckeyes didn't put the scoring weight on one or two players' shoulders either. They had five different players — Thornton, Brown, Sensabaugh, Sueing and guard Sean McNeil — with at least five first-half points.

One of Illinois' few first-half highlights was an absolute mammoth dunk by Hawkins.

Illinois closed the half by knocking down six of its last eight shots, but the Buckeyes carried a 41-29 lead into the half.

Ohio State will be back at Value City Arena Wednesday for its regular-season home finale against the Maryland Terrapins at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.