Ohio State basketball: Buckeyes blow double-digit lead to UNC

The Ohio State basketball team came into the CBS Sports Classic as the only ranked team in the matchup between them and North Carolina. Carolina had come in having lost four of their last six games. Ohio State was coming off a buzzer-beater victory over Rutgers.

It looked like the Buckeyes were going to come away with a second straight victory. They took a lead in the first half and were up 11 points with just seven minutes left. In the end, it didn’t matter. Ohio State collapsed down the stretch and fell to UNC in overtime 89-84.

The main reason why it happened is that Ohio State couldn’t handle the press in the second half. Hubert Davis had his team full-court press Ohio State because he knew they have yet to handle the press well since Chris Holtmann has taken over the program. That held true today.

The Buckeyes started turning the ball over and that got the Tar Heels back in it. UNC hit a buzzer-beating shot at the end of the second half to tie it up and send it to overtime. Ohio State wasn’t able to pull it out late because their half-court offense went cold.

Brice Sensabaugh had a career day in terms of points scored. He had 22, which is the best he’s done in the young season. He also added 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Bruce Thornton had a pretty good game as well, scoring 17 points, dishing out 5 assists, and grabbing 5 boards.

This isn’t a very good loss for this Ohio State basketball team. They had this game and they let it slip away. We can only hope that this young team uses this as a learning experience to help close these types of games out later in the season.