Trailing 81-79 in a recreation they had been favored to win within the first spherical of the NIT, Ohio State wanted clutch performs within the ultimate moments.
Clutch performs are what it discovered.
First it was Jamison Battle, nailing a three-pointer from the left nook to place the Buckeyes forward 82-81 with 43 seconds left.
Then it was Roddy Gayle Jr., poking a ball free and diving on it for a leap ball and steal to ship it again Ohio State’s manner.
Subsequent got here Evan Mahaffey, doing his finest quarterback impression and lasering a cross the total size of the courtroom to search out Devin Royal close to the rim.
Final got here Royal, who pump-faked and completed the play with a layup, then Dale Bonner, who knocked down two free throws to place Ohio State up two scores with 14 seconds to play.
TEAM | 1 | 2 | FINAL |
---|---|---|---|
#7 CORNELL | 38 | 45 | 83 |
#2 OHIO STATE | 44 | 44 | 88 |
All that proved sufficient for second-seeded Ohio State (21-13) to battle previous seventh-seeded Cornell (22-8), 88-83, and advance to the second spherical of the NIT.
4 totally different Buckeyes hit double-figures, with Gayle and Battle main the way in which with 17 factors. Felix Okpara picked up a career-high 16 factors with seven rebounds and three blocks whereas Royal added 13 factors.
Guard Isaiah Grey picked up a game-high 19 factors for Cornell in a shedding effort. Ahead Man Ragland Jr. added 17 with a game-high 9 rebounds.
Ohio State held an enormous 51-32Â rebounding benefit over the Huge Purple, amassing 15Â second-chance factors.Â
First half
Cornell got here out in a full-court press, and whereas Ohio State obtained a couple of buckets in transition early, it did not deal with the sped-up tempo nicely general.
The Buckeyes began 3-of-18 from the sphere – all in underneath 5 minutes – as two triples from Cooper Noard constructed an early 12-6 lead for Cornell off an 8-0 run.
The Huge Purple prolonged that edge to 19-9, producing loads of layups close to the rim off backdoor cuts whereas tossing up loads of threes as nicely.
Gayle and Okpara had the response for Ohio State, nevertheless, combining for 9 factors to assist slice the deficit to 4 on the under-eight media timeout.
Bruce Thornton got here out and hit two step-back threes to cap a 10-0 Buckeye run that made it a 26-24 ballgame, however Cornell answered with three triples of its personal for a 9-0 run and a 33-26 lead.
The perimeter peppering continued with back-to-back distance makes from Royal and Thornton.
Keller Boothby answered once more with a 3, however Ohio State rattled off an 8-0 run capped by two triples rapid-fire from Battle to maneuver forward 40-36 and carry a 44-38 lead into halftime.
Second half
Man Ragland Jr. proved to be an issue because the second half started.
After Dale Bonner collected his first 5 factors of the sport to make it a seven-point Ohio State lead, Ragland hit a layup to sluggish the Buckeyes’ roll.
Ragland scored 9 of 13 factors for Cornell throughout a burst of offense that put the Huge Purple again into the driving force’s seat, 57-56. Gayle picked up his fourth foul quickly after.
OHIO STATE | STAT | CORNELL |
---|---|---|
88 | POINTS | 83 |
32-75 (42.7%) | FGM-FGA (PCT.) | 33-67 (49.3%) |
11-26 (42.3%) | 3PM-3PA (PCT.) | 12-33 (36.4%) |
13-22 (59.1%) | FTM-FTA (PCT.) | 5-6 (83.3%) |
10 | TURNOVERS | 9 |
51 | TOTAL REBOUNDS | 32 |
22 | OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS | 6 |
29 | DEFENSIVE REBOUNDS | 26 |
27 | BENCH POINTS | 33 |
5 | BLOCKS | 3 |
4 | STEALS | 6 |
22 | ASSISTS | 26 |
That did not cease him from reentering the sport and scoring 5 consecutive factors for the Buckeyes after they trailed 64-62. A contested three-pointer from Gayle gave Ohio State a 67-66 lead, then a transition layup by way of a foul for Okpara and an alley-oop flush from the middle gave Ohio State its first two-score edge in nearly 10 minutes.
Jake Fiegen hit a triple to cease the bleeding for Cornell and the rating stood at 71-69 Ohio State with 5:45 remaining.
Cornell got here charging again to take a 76-75 lead off a Grey layup, just for a technical foul from Grey to assist tie the sport at 76. Battle nailed a floater two possessions later and Ohio State led 79-76 with 2:26 to play.
Nazir Williams answered with a triple and the sport was tied with lower than two minutes remaining. Then Grey nailed a layup by way of an Evan Mahaffey contest following a missed layup from Gayle, and Cornell pulled forward 81-79.
However the Buckeyes scored 9 of the sport’s subsequent 11 factors from there to keep away from a first-round upset and advance to the second spherical of the NIT, the place they’ll host No. 3 seed Virginia Tech (19-14) on both Saturday or Sunday.
Recreation notes
- Ohio State had extra subject objective makes an attempt within the first half (43) than it had all recreation towards Northwestern on Jan. 27 (41).
- Monday marked Okpara’s 14th recreation of the season with at the least three blocked pictures and his twenty third recreation with at the least two.
- Thornton left the sport with 10:18 to play with what Jake Diebler confirmed to be an ankle sprain. His standing for the second spherical of the NIT is unclear.
- Scotty Middleton was unavailable for Ohio State on account of a household emergency. He’s anticipated again for the Buckeyes’ second-round NIT recreation.