Ohio State basketball loses heartbreaker on buzzer-beater three

The Ohio State basketball team couldn’t get any flow in the second half of Wednesday night’s game against the Florida Gators. Quite frankly, neither team could. The referees decided to make the night more about them than the players. Florida shot a ridiculous 33 free throws in this game.

As has been true every game so far this season, E.J. Liddell was fantastic again. He had 23 points on 7/10 shooting and also added 5 blocks. The issue was that he was only 8/12 from the free throw line. In fact, the entire Buckeye team was bad from the line.

The Buckeyes only hit 13 of their 20 free throw attempts for a very poor 65%. They shot 13 less free throws than Florida, which ended up being the difference. The refs were certainly suspect at times, and it cost the Buckeyes having Kyle Young on the floor for the final 9 minutes of the game after he fouled out.

Young was the only other player for the Buckeyes to score in double-figures, scoring 11. They needed three more because they lost 71-68. It was a back-breaking loss to a pretty good team. Even so, the Buckeyes led by as much as 11 in the second half. They blew this game.

Chris Holtmann needs to get his team to close better. They blew the game at Xavier and now blew this game against Florida. You would think that a team as old as this is that they would be better in these bigger moments. That has proven to not be the case.

The Ohio State basketball team’s schedule doesn’t get any easier. They have a week off before facing Duke in the Schott. If they lose that game too, this season could very quickly turn ugly. Close losses like this haunt you when March rolls around.