Indianapolis – Duane v. Washington Jr. The 3-pointer bounced off the shore, and Justice Suing slammed himself under the basket, which rose and tied him inside. Hastily, he bounced off the ground and hit the ball under the glass and jumped. Swing screams at Lucas Oil Stadium, a bench in Ohio State, and the presence of scarlet and brown fans were heard.
|
Team |
. |
2 |
The final |
|---|---|---|---|
| # 5 State of Ohio | 26 | 42 | 68 |
|
# 1 Michigan |
27 |
40 |
67 |
On that same play, Swing made the Buccaneers 61-50, 5:17 left and outscored Franz Wagner, the Michigan wing is expected to be picked in the first round of the NBA Draft in a few months. At that moment, if you let your mind wander, it seemed a little more realistic at any of the previous stages of the last few days that Ohio State would actually pull this off and advance to the Big Ten Tournament Championship.
Five minutes of action – and some drama – later, it became a reality. The fifth-ranked, bookies, advanced to the final game of the conference tournament on Saturday afternoon, beating top-ranked Michigan-68–67.
Swings and a one-point came between a 7-point range that allowed Ohio State to extend a 13-point six-point lead on a free throw from EJ Liddell with a 19-lead left. Michigan, starting center Hunter Dickinson went within seven points of the bookies with 2:44 left, gaining five points in a 40-second period. Then, it got worse.
|
Ohio State |
State |
Michigan |
|---|---|---|
|
68 |
Points |
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 |
Driver |
2 |
|
37 |
Total rebunds |
36 |
|
10 |
Fifty pounds |
10 |
|
27 |
Defensive rebounds |
26 |
|
14 |
Bench points |
9 |
|
7 |
Blocks |
5 |
|
0 |
Theft |
3 |
|
13 |
Assistants |
14 |
The Bookies couldn’t weather the aggressive struggles of the second half, putting them in danger of potentially losing to Minnesota and Purdue in their previous two tournament games. Liddell turned it twice within the final two minutes, putting Michigan within four points in less than a minute to play. Choundy Brown had 48 seconds left to cut Ohio State’s lead from 48-6767. CJ Walker went out of bounds with 28 seconds left, but Mike Smith didn’t make a jump that could end the game with a win.
The shootout that took place in the first Ohio State-Michigan game could not be replicated on Saturday – at least, in the first half.
Ohio State shot 30.3 percent off the floor and went 0-for-4 from the free-throw line, though its 3-point range kept the 6-for-13 mark and eight offensive boards kept six-point underdogs at bay. Ich Latu, Michigan, suffered most of his damage from the foul line (9-of-10) while struggling from outside the arc. He also hits just 29.6 percent field goals in the first half.
Dickinson, the young Howard’s – foot-1 center, seemed to fear injury in the first few innings of the game, which called for a replacement. Per the CBS broadcast, though, he hit the funny bone. Once back in action, his presence at the bottom helped Michigan hit in the opening half. A four-and-a-half-minute stretch without the Ohio State Basketball – ending with an EJ Liddell lapup with 1:13 left – allowed Michigan to catch the lead entering halftime. But, he only went on a 27-26 break, with 32 ticks left due to a triple by Seth Towns.
Next: Ohio State will go on to face the Illinois-Iowa winner in the Big Ten Championship on Sunday. The game will take off at 3:30 pm and will be televised on CBS.
Other notes
-
Senior forward Kyle Young sat out of the game due to a weapon. He continues to go through daily medical protocols, and it is unclear when he will return to court for bookies.
-
Young was replaced by Chris Holtman in fourth-year Wing Musa Jallo. Coming out of the CJ and Walker bench, he was accompanied by Duane and Washington Washington Jr., Justin Ahrens, Musa Jallo, Justice Swing and EJ Liddell.
-
This week, Holtman won more than one game in the conference tournament for the first time in his career. He also won his 200th win as head coach on Friday.
-
It was the second Ohio State-Michigan game of the season. They met once in a regular season, and the Wolverines came in at 92-87.
-
If Ohio State pulls Michigan’s season-long sweep, its players are given gold jerseys. Which was implemented after the 2020-21 season. However, the bookies had already dropped out of Juan Howard’s squad on February 21, so they were unable to earn those gold jerseys regardless of Saturday’s result.
