The spiral continues: No. 14 Illinois hands Ohio State a third straight defeat
Chris Holtmann repeated the obvious on Saturday night. Ohio State had to be better. It just had to. In just about every aspect of the game. That’s what an 83-58 loss, even one on the road against a likely NCAA Tournament team like Northwestern, will do to a team.
Three days later, the Buckeyes got a chance to be that. And for the most part, Ohio State was better in a return to its home arena against No. 14 Illinois.
It just wasn’t nearly good enough. The Buckeyes (13-8, 3-7 Big Ten) traded baskets for a while with the Fighting Illini but couldn't get close to enough stops to score an upset that could've stopped another losing streak.
Illinois (16-5, 7-3) led for the final 24:53, much of it by double figures, to send the Buckeyes to their third consecutive loss, 87-75.
Ohio State has now dropped six of its last seven and will go to Iowa on Friday in search of a win that would snap not only this current losing streak, but a run of 14 consecutive road losses dating back to New Year's Day of 2023.
After trailing by seven points at the half, the Buckeyes threatened to make it interesting in the second half but never had the ball while within two possessions or less. The high-water mark came when Evan Mahaffey banked in a shot from the right block with 16:02 to play that made it a 50-44 Illinois lead.
In need of a stop and a score to really make things tight, the Buckeyes played 34 seconds of solid defense. But in the final second of Illinois' possession, Ohio State's Felix Okpara was whistled for a foul on Ty Rodgers, sending him to the line with 15:28 to play.
He hit both free throws after the media timeout, and Ohio State got no closer than eight points the rest of the way. Unlike at Northwestern, though, the score never got out of hand: the Wildcats led by as many as 35.
Illinois is the third consecutive team to top 83 points against Ohio State.
Jamison Battle led the Buckeyes with 21 points and Roddy Gayle Jr. added 20 as Holtmann deployed an atypically short rotation. Ohio State played without either of its primary centers for the final 10:19.
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Eschewing the 3-point line for shots much closer to the basket, Ohio State took a 28-23 lead when Jamison Battle passed up a shot from the left wing, drove through the paint and finished from the right block with 6:47 left. It was the fifth time the Buckeyes had scored on their last six possessions, but when Illinois’ Quincy Guerrier sunk a 3-pointer 17 seconds later and Illini coach Brad Underwood called timeout it was the start of a run for the visitors.
Without Felix Okpara’s rim protection as he sat with two fouls, Ohio State’s defense started to crack. Illinois scored on seven straight possessions starting with the Guerrier 3-pointer and was powered by Marcus Domask, who scored seven straight at one point. He finished on the right block over Zed Key, finished a pass from Terrence Shannon Jr. and hit a wide-open 3 that made it 33-31 Illinois.
Justin Harmon capped the Illinois run when the Buckeyes lost him defensively as Key blocked a Domask drive, leading to an uncontested putback that gave Illinois a 39-32 lead with 2:40 to play. Ohio State missed eight of its final nine shots of the half as well as the front end of two one-and-one opportunities at the free-throw line during that same stretch. When Evan Mahaffey missed a front end, Key was whistled for a foul going after the offense rebound to give Domask a one-and-one situation. He hit both.
The Illini played the final 4:06 of the second half without Shannon and Coleman Hawkins but still outscored the Buckeyes 8-3 from there. The half ended with a missed 3-pointer from Battle, cementing another half with a wide gulf in shooting from deep. Illinois hit 5 of 11 shots from deep while Ohio State was just 1 for 4.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Illinois hands sinking Ohio State Buckeyes third straight loss
