Ohio State basketball shows mental toughness in victory over Purdue

The Ohio State basketball team blew another big lead but showed mental toughness down the stretch to beat Purdue in overtime.

Let’s be honest: this game never should have gone to overtime. The Ohio State basketball team had an 18-point lead at halftime. Then they hit only three field goals in the final 15:20 of the game and let Purdue tie it up and send it to overtime. But Ohio State won 87-78 and that’s all that matters.

Chris Holtmann’s team continued their theme of blowing games late in the second half. It looked like once the game went to overtime that they had no shot to win. They were reeling and had no answer for Trevion Williams, who had 26 points and 14 rebounds.

Overtime was a different story though. Seth Towns hit two huge shots on back-to-back possessions to give Ohio State a 7-point lead. He finished with 11 points and was one of five Buckeyes that scored in double-digits. One of those players was Kyle Young.

Young had all 18 points in the first half on 7-10 shooting, including 4-5 from three. He took an elbow early in the second half and missed the rest of the game. He looked like he suffered another concussion and will probably miss tomorrow’s game against Michigan.

Duane Washington had an Ohio State-high 20 points on 7-17 shooting. E.J. Liddell had 17 on 5-13 shooting but 6-7 from the free-throw line. C.J. Walker did a little bit of everything, scoring 10 points, dishing out 7 assists, grabbing 5 rebounds, and swiping four steals.

Even though the Buckeyes gave up that big lead, this game seems different from the others. The way they played in overtime showed me that they still have the mental toughness to close out games. Maybe this is the game that makes them realize that so they don’t have these issues moving forward.

Tomorrow will be a tough test against Michigan. That’s a problem for tomorrow. Right now it’s time to rest up and enjoy a hard-fought victory over a really good team.