Ohio State basketball: Washington’s failures cost Buckeyes victory

The Ohio State basketball team was in perfect position to grab another quality win in the Big Ten, but poor play from one of their veterans cost them a victory.

The Ohio State basketball team was riding high as they came into Evanston to face Northwestern. They enjoyed a massive comeback victory over Rutgers earlier in the week. They had a decent lead over the Wildcats late in this game too, but they ultimately couldn’t close.

Duane Washington had a sequence of events that cost the team a victory. Late in the game, he forced a horrible shot that got blocked that resulted in Northwestern points. On the next possession, he turned it over. Then on the ensuing defensive possession, he lost his man and guarded no one, and allowed a wide-open three.

On the second to last possession of the game, Washington had a clear path to the rim to win the game. He missed the layup and it resulted in the loss. Washington was inefficient yet again, shooing a terrible 1-9 from the field and contributing only 7 points.

Seth Towns was really good in this one, which was great to see. Towns offered up 11 points off the bench and was 3-4 from deep. Quite frankly, he was the one who kept it close in the first half. Kyle Young was good once again, contributing 14 points and 8 rebounds.

None of it mattered in the end though. Northwestern won 71-70 and Washington’s poor play is a big reason for it. The other large reason is the Buckeyes’ inability to stop Miller Kopp. Kopp had 23 points for Northwestern and shot 3-4 from three.

Chris Holtmann needs to have a talk with his junior guard. Washington cannot continue to force up bad shots every single game. He is killing this team with his bad offense. If he doesn’t improve, he might need to come off the bench. This team needs better play out of him.

The Buckeyes play next on Wednesday against Nebraska.