Ohio State Basketball: Justin Ahrens leads Buckeyes to a huge win
The Ohio State basketball team pulled off a signature win over the Iowa Hawkeyes and freshman Justin Ahrens had a breakout game.
The Ohio State Buckeyes came into this Tuesday night needing a win to stay a float in the running for the NCAA Tournament in March. They did just that garnering a huge 90-70 win over the 22nd ranked Iowa Hawkeyes in a game where Freshman Justin Ahrens put up a career high 29 points.
Ahrens was on fire from beyond the arc as he drained 6 of the 10 three pointers that he attempted on the night and was perfect from the free throw line, going 9-9 in the contest.
Ahrens provided the Buckeye’s offense a much needed jump-start as coming into the game Ohio State had lost 3 of its last 4 matchups and only averaged 56 points per game during that stretch. But a barrage of Ahrens’ threes and ninety points later the Buckeyes had propelled themselves to a 18-10 overall record and an 8-9 record inside the conference.
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Ohio State killed the Hawkeyes on the boards winning that battle 36-26 and that was a big reason why they were able to come away with a victory. Sophomore center Kaleb Wesson was a huge part of that victory on the boards as he was able to bring down 11 rebounds to go along with his 18 points on the night, giving himself a double-double in the huge victory.
This victory over a ranked Big Ten opponent will help set the tone of the season for the Buckeyes as we get closer to selection day. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had Ohio State sitting at a 10 seed in the tournament coming into the game and that might change to a 9 seed after the win over Iowa.
The Buckeyes have three games remaining on the schedule and will take on 14th ranked Purdue this upcoming Saturday, Then it’s on to Northwestern the following Wednesday, and their final home game of the season against 19th ranked Wisconsin the next Saturday.
A win over Northwestern as well as one win in the Big Ten Tournament should garner Ohio State a bid in the NCAA tournament.
As far as the Big Ten tournament rankings look, if the season ended today the Buckeyes would be sitting at the 7 seed and be set to face Rutgers in the second round of the tournament. Ohio State is still 2 games behind Iowa even after the win tonight so it seems as the best the Buckeyes will be able to do is the 7th seed come tourney time.
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No matter how the season finishes for Ohio State though, fans should be excited about the explosion of Ahrens as he could give Ohio State a legitimate scoring option heading into March, something they have been missing since the start of Big Ten play.