Ohio State basketball survives tough test vs. Notre Dame

The Ohio State basketball team is off to a great 4-0 start after they were able to beat Notre Dame 90-85 in South Bend.

Ohio State basketball continues to be strong early. The Buckeyes were able to beat Notre Dame 90-85 in a game that was close the entire time. The biggest lead in this game was 11 by the Fighting Irish, but the Buckeyes were able to fight back.

E.J. Liddell had a monster game. He was a force in this one, scoring 19 points on 7/15 shooting while adding 12 rebounds, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. He was everywhere in this game. His presence in the middle of Notre Dame’s zone defense was the difference in this one.

This was one of the few games in which the Buckeyes were able to handle a zone. After they stopped shooting so many threes, they were able to attack Notre Dame down low. Justice Sueing had 16 points with most of them being in the paint.

While C.J. Walker didn’t shoot it efficiently, only going 3/10 from the field, he had 16 points and went 8/8 from the free-throw line. His steady hand down the stretch is what put this game away for Ohio State. He is the best ball handler this team has by a long shot.

Musa Jallow was fantastic tonight as well. He had 7 points off the bench and was extremely active on both sides of the ball. It was good to see him have a good game after struggling in the previous games this season. He also seems to finally be fully healthy.

Justin Ahrens was also very good on offense. He went 4/6 from three to add 12 points off the bench. His shooting was key early in the first half when the Buckeyes shot a lot of threes. Overall on the night, Ohio State shot 47.8% from three. They went 11/23 from deep.

Rebounding was an issue at times in this game. The Buckeyes are an undersized team so this will probably be a theme throughout the year. Surprisingly though, they were only out-rebounded by 2. It seemed much worse than that watching the game.

This is a really nice win for the Ohio State basketball program right now. It’s a win that will look really nice on Selection Sunday. Anytime you get a road win against a quality opponent you have to be happy.