'Lackadaisical' Ohio State laments 'lazy' closing effort in loss at Penn State
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Not enough fight. Lackadaisical. Lazy.
Those were some of the words the Ohio State Buckeyes used to describe just what went wrong during the second half of Saturday night’s 83-80 loss at Penn State, a game where the Buckeyes led by 18 with 15:31 to play. Then, after a Jamison Battle 3-pointer made it 55-37, a Nittany Lions team on a five-game losing streak closed the game by outscoring their visitors 46-25 to flip the result and stun the Buckeyes.
Penn State changed some things up. Its zone defense gave Ohio State issues that it was unable to solve. Its star players got hot. By the end, the Bryce Jordan Center was cheering like the majority of the upper bowl wasn’t curtained off.
In his postgame press conference, Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann cited his team’s defensive rebounding struggles, its lack of aggression against the zone and an overall lack of effort once the lead reached its highest point.
When Holtmann was done, Roddy Gayle Jr. was the first player to meet with reporters. Standing outside of the visitors’ locker room, the Ohio State sophomore guard was asked for his reaction to his coach’s characterization of what had just transpired.
“We just didn’t have enough fight, honestly,” Gayle said. “We didn’t have enough effort to sustain the energy we did in the first half. I think we did a pretty decent job in the first half, rebounding the ball, taking care of the ball, limiting turnovers. In the second half they picked up their pressure.”
It wasn’t for a lack of preparation, Gayle said. Although Penn State’s five-game losing streak included a home defeat to Bucknell, ranked No. 330 at KenPom as the game began, the Buckeye said there was healthy respect for the Nittany Lions’ talent level and ability to force teams into turnovers.
“It’s a really good Penn State team that we knew that’s what they like to do,” Gayle said. “We knew their big guy likes to crash the offensive boards. Their guards are really risky and like to gamble for steals. We knew the game plan and just had lack of details.”
Gayle went on to describe Ohio State’s play as “lackadaisical,” saying the Buckeyes essentially thought the game was over when they were up 18.
Bruce Thornton, Gayle’s fellow sophomore guard, did not dispute his teammate’s summarization of the evening.
“It’s us controlling the small things,” he said. “I feel like we was capable of winning this game. We didn’t offensive rebound, we didn’t get stops when we needed it. When we don’t do things like that, it’s hard to win, especially on the road against a good team like Penn State. We get those under control, we’ll be in good hands.”
The loss marks the 11th time Ohio State has held a double-digit lead and lost during the Holtmann era, and it surpassed a 15-point lead against Butler during the 2017-18 season as the biggest deficit to disappear. Playing in the PK80 Invitational in Portland, the Buckeyes led the Bulldogs 56-41 with 3:46 to play before Holtmann’s former team rallied, forced overtime and won, 67-66.
Under Holtmann, Ohio State is 112-11 in games where it leads by 10 or more points for a .911 winning percentage. Holtmann’s predecessor, Thad Matta, was 291-21 for a .933 winning percentage.
Of the 11 such losses with Holtmann in charge, three came last year. In a season where Ohio State went 16-19, it lost 89-84 to North Carolina in overtime after leading 34-20 with 5:38 left in the first half, 71-69 to Purdue after leading 26-14 with 6:24 left in the first half and 68-64 to Rutgers in overtime after leading 15-4 with 10:47 left in the first half.
It was a rough year for everyone in the program, Thornton, Gayle and the returners on this year’s team especially. Plenty of talk around Ohio State in the offseason and preseason was about scar tissue, about remembering what went wrong last year and doing as much as possible to write a different script this season.
Given all that, and with the Buckeyes poised to debut in the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday with a win and a 9-1 record, was this the kind of loss Thornton thought they were past?
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“It’s a Big Ten game,” Thornton said. “When you think you’re up, you’re really not up. We weren’t focused to the point where we needed to finish out the game the right way, because we’re not at home. It’s so hard to win these road games. When we let one slip away like today, it really hurts. We’ve got to get back to the drawing board and keep getting better.”
After a day off, that begins anew with Monday’s practice and a date with UCLA in Atlanta ahead on Saturday.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Why did Ohio State lose at Penn State? 'Lackadaisical' effort, it says
