Ohio State Basketball: Bench players changed up Buckeyes’ offense

It appeared the Ohio State basketball team was on the way to another conference loss in Evanston but bench players led the Buckeyes to a good road win.

The Ohio State basketball team once again struggled on offense early against the Northwestern Wildcats on Sunday. The Buckeyes fell behind 15-8 but things changed soon after Chris Holtmann began to clear his bench and the reserves got things rolling.

Duane Washington hit a three-point shot to jumpstart the offense. Justin Ahrens then hit two with the second tying the game at 19 and later D.J. Carton hit one from behind the arc and Ohio State took a 38-35 lead into the break.

The three performed well in the second half as well. Washington hit another three, Ahrens hit two more and Carton scored 12 points.

Carton finished the game with 17 points, Ahrens 12 and Washington 8. With E.J. Liddell adding a bucket the reserves accounted for 39 of Ohio State’s 71 points.

Now, will the reserves continue to be counted on heavily to provide scoring going forward? I think so and here are the reasons why.

D.J. Carton has had a nice season to this point but it takes time for a freshman point guard to learn the ropes and gain confidence in himself, and of his teammates. Now he has played 20 games and the Buckeyes are almost halfway through the Big Ten schedule and he proved himself against the Wildcats, both running the offense and taking over the scoring load when it was needed.

We may look back at this game as the confidence booster this talented young man needed to jump-start his career.

Certainly Chris Holtmann will be inserting Justin Ahrens into the game more often if he just looks at these stats.

During the five losses when Ohio State failed to score 60 points Ahrens played in three. He was only on the floor for a total of 10 minutes in that stretch and was 1-of-6 from the field.

During the last two wins, Ahrens played 13 minutes in each and scored 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting. The Buckeyes scored at least 71 points each game.

Having a sharpshooter who can hit from behind the arc opens things up for other players.

Duane Washington didn’t exactly have a stellar shooting night against Northwestern but is averaging 11.2 points and is always a threat to score. E.J. Liddell is having a solid freshman season and will probably continue averaging about six points per game.

If Washington and Liddell continue to put up  the numbers they have so far, Carton continues to score when needed and Ahrens sees plenty of playing time, the Buckeyes may be fine from here on out.

At the very least, Chris Holtmann’s bench players will give opposing teams more things to prepare for which should create opportunities for starters on the floor at the same time. Particularly Kaleb Wesson, and the big center would love that.