The Cinderella run for Ohio State men’s basketball ended on Friday evening, as they lost to Illinois 77-74 in the 3rd round of the Big Ten Tournament.
This loss hurt, as the Buckeyes had so much on the line, but couldn’t find a way to finish in the waiting moments after holding a lead with under 2 minutes remaining. Ohio State’s final record during the regular season is 20-13, which may or may not get them into the NCAA Tournament.
Ohio State missed a major opportunity to punch its ticket and not have to sweat out Selection Sunday. Unfortunately that isn’t the case as we once again learned plenty about the Buckeyes in their regular season ending loss to Illinois.
On Thursday, Thornton just missed a triple-double and against Illinois, he got a double-double, with 20 points and 10 assists, shooting 8-of-14 from the field. He had not played his best basketball after missing a game with a migraine, but it seems like Thornton has shaken that off and is playing up to his normal standard once again.
The Buckeyes committed 9 team fouls in the first half, Evan Mahaffey and Devin Royal both committing three each, Bruce Thornton and Jamison Battle had two. It wasn’t easy for Ohio State, as the second half it was more of the same. The under 8 saw Felix Okpara, Mahaffey and Royal all with 4 fouls with the transfer Mahaffey eventually fouling out. This wasn’t ideal at all, especially considering that it was along the front line. It’s an issue that we’ve seen the last few games, and it hurt the effectiveness of the Buckeyes defense tonight.
Ohio State’s largest lead was 10-points, while Illinois had its largest at 7-points. It was a good amount of back-and-forth play, as the two teams each went on runs throughout the game. The counter-punches in this game made it an extremely competitive, heavy-weight contest, one that the Buckeyes just couldn’t find a way to finish. The possessions after the Illini took the late lead resulted in turnovers and Ohio State couldn’t grab a rebound to try and take the lead until the final moments. They were so close, but just couldn’t find a way to pull out the win.