Buckeyes Drop 67-60 Decision to Boilermakers

Buckeyes Drop 67-60 Decision to Boilermakers

Credit Source: Ohio State University Athletics

First loss of the season for 5-1 Buckeyes; UCLA up next in Cleveland

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Purdue Boilermakers led No. 19/20 Ohio State by five at the half, extended the lead to 13 points with just over eight minutes to play in the game and went on to hand the Buckeyes their first loss of the season, 67-60, Wednesday night in West Lafayette, Ind. The game was the Big Ten Conference opener for both teams. Purdue improves to 5-2 overall and 1-0 in the Big Ten while Ohio State is now 5-1 and 0-1.

 

Purdue forward Trevion Williams was outstanding all game with 16 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Guard Eric Hunter had 15 points.

 

Justice Sueing and Duane Washington Jr. led the Buckeyes with 14 and 13 points, respectively. Kyle Young led with eight rebounds and C.J. Walker dished a career-high tying seven assists but saw his career-long 11-game streak of double figure points snapped with six.

 

Purdue held a six-rebound edge, 36-30, and shot 47 pct. from the field for the game. The Buckeyes connected on just 38 percent of their shots.

 

“I thought collectively we did some good things,” Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said on the Ohio State Sports Radio Network following the game. “We’ve got to get better in some areas, though. I didn’t think we played with enough poise late, really offensively, primarily. I thought we did some good things, though, and we just have to take this and grow from it.”

 

The Buckeyes went with a new starting lineup on Wednesday, giving a nod to senior graduate transfer Jimmy Sotos and junior forward Musa Jallow. Zed Key also earned a start, the first of his career. It was also the first career start in a Buckeye uniform for Sotos, who played three seasons at Bucknell before graduating and transferring. Jallow started for the first time since a second-round NCAA Tournament game in 2019 vs. Houston.

 

The teams traded baskets through the first 10 minutes of the first half and Ohio State took its first lead of the game on a three pointer by Eugene Brown III with 10:37 remaining. With the score tied at 15, the Buckeyes scored five straight points – on a three by Justin Ahrens and then a running jumper by Sueing – to take a 20-15 lead, its largest of the game.

 

An 8-0 run by Purdue with under four minutes to play in the first half gave the Boilermakers a 36-28 lead, but the Buckeyes quickly responded following a timeout with a Sotos and-one layup followed by a basket in transition by Jallow to make the score 36-33 in favor of Purdue. The Boilermakers led 38-33 at the break.

 

Ohio State missed eight consecutive shots midway through the second half allowing the Boilermakers to build its largest lead of the game at 58-45 with just over eight minutes to play. The final score would be as close as Ohio State would make it the rest of the way.

 

Not UNC; Now UCLA

Organizers for the CBS Sports Classic today announced updated matchups for the 2020 event, which is set to take place this Saturday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. North Carolina will face Kentucky at 2 p.m. ET, followed by UCLA and Ohio State at approximately 4:15 p.m. ET with both games airing on CBS. The revised schedule was created to more closely align COVID-19 testing protocols between the competing programs and their respective conferences.

 

#GoBuckeyes

 

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