Ohio State basketball stuns top-ranked Duke

The Ohio State basketball team kept the game a lot closer than some people thought. Even though they were only 3-point underdogs, they still faced a tall task going against the number one team in the country in Duke. It didn’t look good early either.

The Buckeyes had 9 turnovers in the first half and only shot 3/10 from the free-throw line in that half. While the turnovers got better in the second half, the free throws didn’t they still shot a terrible percentage from the line, going 50% for the game. Had they just been better from the line, the Buckeyes may have won by more.

No matter. Ohio State took care of business and made the upset happen, beating Duke 71-66. The Buckeyes were once again led by their best player E.J. Liddell had 14 points and 14 rebounds and hit some big shots in this game. He also added 6 assists.

Zed Key had his best game as a Buckeye as well. He finished with 20 points in the game on 8-15 shooting. Duke simply couldn’t stop him in the low post. He was the go-to guy for Ohio State in the second half and he carried them through.

Cedric Russell was also huge for the Buckeyes in this one. He came off the bench to score 12 points, including 3/3 from behind the arc. He also hit the game-clinching free throws at the end of the game. Russell has definitely earned himself more playing time after this game.

This is a huge win for the Ohio State basketball program. They ended this game on a 14-0 run and took down the number one team in the country. Chris Holtmann needed a win like this to get his team back on track. He did so while missing three rotation guys as well.

It will be interesting to see how this team carries this win through their next few games. The ceiling on this team just changed.