Ohio State basketball: Furious comeback ends on buzzer beater

It’s been the story of the last month. January continues to suck the life out of the Ohio State basketball program under Chris Holtmann. In all of their losses this month, poor three-point shooting has been one of the major culprits. Sunday against Purdue was no different, at least at the start of the game.

The Buckeyes only shot 15% from three in the first half and were only slightly better than that in the second half. During the entire game, they only shot 28.6% from three. It ended up sinking them as they fell to the Boilermakers 81-78 in Mackey Arena.

Give credit to Holtmann’s squad in the second half. They were down by as much as 20 and mounted a furious comeback at the end of the game. They actually ended up tying the game on a three from E.J. Liddell with just 20.8 seconds left. The Buckeyes never quit.

Cedric Russell was a big reason why Ohio State was able to fight back. He had 9 points off the bench and got hot during that comeback that the Buckeyes mounted. He might have an argument to start next game now that Ahrens has been fully relegated to the bench.

Malaki Branham was the best Buckeye, scoring 20 points on 7/10 shooting. He was able to get to his spots and score most of the game. The problem is that the rest of the team wasn’t able to follow suit early in the game. Liddell struggled until the very end of the game.

A Jaden Ivey three is what sunk the Buckeyes at the buzzer. They played really good defense the entire possession, and Ivey just hit a crazy shot. He killed Ohio State all game, putting in 20 points on 7/9 shooting. He was the best player on the floor all game.

I didn’t think this Ohio State basketball team had a chance to come back, so give them credit. But Holtmann has to get his team to hit outside shots if this team wants any shot to make noise in March.