INDIANAPOLIS – When Duane Washington Jr. of 3 points ricocheted off the edge, Judge Sueing positioned himself under the basket, stood up and pulled it. In a hurry, he bounced on the floor and put the ball out of the glass and through the arc. Screams from Sueing, the Ohio State Bank and fans dressed in red and gray were echoed throughout Lucas Oil Stadium.
|
Team |
1 |
two |
FINAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # 5 OHIO STATE | 26 | 42 | 68 |
|
# 1 MICHIGAN |
27 |
40 |
67 |
In that single play, Sueing put the Buckeyes up, 61-50, with 5:17 remaining and missed Franz Wagner, Michigan winger who should be picked in the first round of the NBA draft in a few months. At that moment, if you let your mind wander, it would start to feel a little more real than at any time in the past few days that the state of Ohio could really achieve that and advance to the Big Ten tournament championship.
Five minutes of action – and a little drama – later, it came true. The Buckeyes, the fifth seed, defeated champion Michigan, 68-67, on Saturday afternoon to advance to the final game of the conference tournament.
Sueing’s goal came in the middle of a 7-point run that allowed Ohio State to extend the six-point lead to 13 points in EJ Liddell’s free throws with 4:19 remaining. Michigan, with Hunter Dickinson pivot scoring five points in a 40-second interval, was seven points from the Buckeyes with 2:44 remaining. Then it got worse.
|
OHIO STATE |
STATE |
MICHIGAN |
|---|---|---|
|
68 |
SPOTS |
67 |
|
24-57 (42.1%) |
FGM-FGA (PCT.) |
20-57 (35.1%) |
|
12-22 (54.5%) |
3 PM-3PA (PCT.) |
6-19 (34.6%) |
|
8-14 (57.1%) |
FTM-FTA (PCT.) |
21-23 (91.3%) |
|
9 |
TURNOVERS |
two |
|
37 |
TOTAL REWARDS |
36 |
|
10 |
OFFENSIVE REWARDS |
10 |
|
27 |
DEFENSIVE REWARDS |
26 |
|
14 |
BANK POINTS |
9 |
|
7 |
BLOCKS |
5 |
|
0 |
STEAL |
3 |
|
13 |
ASSISTANCE |
14 |
The Buckeyes were unable to withstand the offensive struggles of the second half, which put them at risk of losing to Minnesota and Purdue in their two previous games in the tournament. Liddell turned twice in the last two minutes, putting Michigan four points clear with less than a minute to play. Chaundee Brown made a triple with 48 seconds remaining to reduce Ohio State’s lead to 68-67. CJ Walker left the field with 28 seconds left, but Mike Smith missed a jump he could have won to end the game.
The shooting in which the first Ohio State-Michigan game took place did not repeat on Saturday – at least, in the first half.
Ohio State kicked 30.3 percent off the ground and hit 0 to 4 on the free-throw line, but its 6-in-13 mark in the 3-point and eight offensive boards kept the six-point underdogs in the attack distance. Michigan, on the other hand, did most of the damage from the foul line (9 out of 10) while fighting from outside the arc (2 out of 9). It only reached 29.6 percent of the field goals in the first half as well.
Dickinson, Juwan Howard’s 2.13-meter center, had what appeared to be an injury scare early on in the game, calling for a replacement. According to the CBS broadcast, though, it hit the funny bone. Back in action, his presence on the bass helped Michigan go blow after blow in the middle of the first half. A four-and-a-half-minute stretch without an Ohio State basketball – which ended with an EJ Liddell tray with 1:13 left – allowed Michigan to take the lead at halftime. But it went into the range only upwards, 27-26, due to a triple of Seth Towns with 32 ticks remaining.
Next: The state of Ohio moves on to face the Illinois-Iowa winner in the Big Ten championship on Sunday. The game will start at 3:30 pm and will be broadcast on CBS.
Other notes
-
Senior striker Kyle Young was left out of the game due to a concussion. He continues to go through the daily medical protocols, and it is unclear when he will be able to be back on the court by the Buckeyes.
-
Chris Holtmann turned to Musa Jallow, a fourth-year winger, as his fifth starter in place of Young. With CJ Walker leaving the bank, he went with Duane Washington Jr., Justin Ahrens, Musa Jallow, Justice Sueing and EJ Liddell.
-
This week, Holtmann won more than one game in a conference tournament for the first time in his career. He also scored his 200th win as a coach on Friday.
-
This was the second game of the season in Ohio State-Michigan. They met once in the regular season, and the Wolverines were on top, 92-87.
-
If the state of Ohio sweeps throughout the season in Michigan, its players will receive the gold shirts. These were implemented after the 2020-21 season. However, as the Buckeyes already fell for Juwan Howard’s team on February 21, they failed to win the gold shirts, regardless of Saturday’s result.