Ohio State keeps winning, handles Miami (Ohio) upset bid behind Zed Key, Roddy Gayle Jr.
The concern was there for Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann. Three days after a Big Ten opener, and three days before the next Big Ten game, the Buckeyes welcomed Miami (Ohio) to Value City Arena for a midweek affair.
Ohio State took care of the Golden Gophers last time out. Penn State, and a potential 2-0 start to league play, looms on the calendar. But first, the Buckeyes would have the RedHawks to grapple with, a scrappy, in-state foe with a chance to spoil a strong start to Ohio State's season.
Miami put up a fair share of resistance in a game that was long on whistles, empty possessions and missed shots and short on style points, but Ohio State scored more than enough of the ones that matter. The Buckeyes (8-1) kept their winning streak alive and won their 27th straight home game against an in-state team with an 84-64 victory against the RedHawks (4-4).
Ohio State is off to its best start since opening the 2019-20 season with a 9-0 record. Its seven-game winning streak is its longest since it won seven straight from Jan. 23-Feb. 18, 2021. The Buckeyes have won five straight against Miami and 31 straight against unranked, non-conference opponents.
The Buckeyes led by as many as 26 points as six players finished in double figures. Roddy Gayle Jr. had 15, Bruce Thornton had 14 and Jamison Battle added 13. Zed Key had a double-double with 13 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high four assists, Dale Bonner had 11 points and Evan Mahaffey had a season-high 10 points after going scoreless in the two previous games.
"I feel like we have a really locked-in group," Mahaffey said. "When you have a really good team coming in that people might not expect to be (tough), they can sneak up and get you. It shows that we stay locked in no matter who we’re playing or no matter when it is, and that’s what you have to do to beat good teams."
The RedHawks, picked by the coaches in the preseason poll to finish tied with Bowling Green for sixth in the 12-team Mid-American Conference, entered the year as the only MAC team with four returning players to average at least 22 minutes per game last season. That list includes second-team preseason all-league pick Anderson Mirambeaux, a 6-8 forward and Cleveland State transfer.
But of those four, two have not seen any playing time this year. Mirambeaux is yet to debut this year for reasons not publicly disclosed, and Morgan Safford is no longer with the program.
The RedHawks won the opening tip and got a 3-pointer from Darweshi Hunter on the opening possession. It was the start of a 9-6 run to open the game as Miami led for the first 5:29. The Buckeyes took their first lead on a Roddy Gayle Jr. steal-and-slam that pushed them ahead 10-9. Miami would briefly reclaim the lead at 13-12 on a Jaquel Morris bucket in the paint, but Bruce Thornton put Ohio State back on top with two free throws at the 12:40 mark.
To that point, the Buckeyes had trailed for 5:52 after having been behind for a total of 8:47 during their six-game winning streak with all but 12 seconds of that coming against Alabama. They would not trail again against the RedHawks, though, even if it wasn’t always pretty.
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Ohio State would go 4:24 without a field goal during the first half but still managed to extend its lead in the process. A Dale Bonner 3-pointer with 8:39 left gave Ohio State a 24-15 lead, and when Thornton extended with his right arm to bank in a leaning drive from the left block with 4:15 remaining it put the Buckeyes ahead 32-19. Although Ohio State missed eight of nine field goals at one point, they went 6 for 8 from the line while holding Miami to only four points during the same stretch.
Ohio State would steadily build its lead, and when Gayle scored in the paint with five seconds left the Buckeyes took a 39-26 lead into the half. Thornton had 11 points at the break and Gayle added 10, while the Buckeyes enjoyed a 15-4 advantage in second-chance points thanks to 12 offensive rebounds. Zed Key had a big role in that, grabbing six during the first half including three on one possession.
The game marked the return of Travis Steele, Miami’s head coach and a graduate manager for the Buckeyes for the 2004-05 season. Steele is also brothers with former Ohio State associate head coach John Groce, who shared a backcourt with Ohio State’s Chris Holtmann at Taylor University.
Steele was called for a technical foul with 17:12 remaining in the half, leading to two Battle free throws. It wasn't the only one of the game, either: Key and Hunter were whistled for offsetting technicals with 12:19 to play after a skirmish inside Ohio State's offensive key.
"I dove on the floor," Key said. "I don’t even remember. It was a blur. I was trying to get up and there were people surrounding me and people on my legs. I just wanted to get up and get off the floor. It was a big thing but it really wasn’t a big thing. That’s why I ran away, because I didn’t want nothing to happen."
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State handles upset bid from Miami (Ohio), wins seventh straight
