Ohio State Basketball Drops Third Straight in Loss to Michigan
Despite taking a late lead, the Ohio State Buckeyes continued to struggle to finish against the Michigan Wolverines Monday.
Ohio State (12-5, 2-4 Big Ten) dropped its third straight Big Ten game 73-65 in front of a packed crowd at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Mich on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to Michigan (7-10, 2-4 Big Ten).
Sophomore guard Bruce Thornton, who had seven in the first half, went 3-9 from the field, including 1-5 on a lot of quick 3s. Over those last five halves, Thornton shot 2-17 from downtown.
Ohio State struggled to find scoring from anywhere, but one light came from freshman forward Devin Royal, who had seven points and three rebounds in just six minutes off the bench. Royal hadn’t played the last two games — both losses — and averages less than eight minutes per game as he sits behind sophomore Felix Okpara and senior Zed Key.
Head coach Chris Holtmann must have gotten his squad fired up at halftime because the Buckeyes came out of the locker room like a whole new team.
In just the first 3.5 minutes of the second half, sophomore forward Evan Mahaffey opened the scoring with quick back-to-back buckets in the paint before Battle took it to the rim with a monster slam to get him rolling. Shortly after, Battle came back down the floor and hit a 3 off a pick-and-pop.
