Ohio State lost a heartbreaker on the road at Illinois on Sunday afternoon 87-79. The Buckeyes were led by solid games from Devin Royal and Bruce Thornton. They were the Buckeyes leading scorers and rebounders. Royal had 29 points and seven rebounds while Thornton had 22 points and eight rebounds. Ohio State shot well from beyond the arc and they didn’t turn the ball over. So why did they fall to the Illini?
The short answer is that Ohio State had almost no game in the paint. Illinois outrebounded the Buckeyes 43 to 31 and outscored them in the paint by a whopping 52-30. Ohio State’s three leading post players combined for only eight points and eight rebounds for the entire game. Inside the three-point arc, the Buckeyes shot an awful 16 of 50, 32%, and only shot 37% from the entire field to Illinois’ 51.7%.
Jake Diebler, his staff, and his team have to come up with a way to change their game because they did some important things very well and it still wasn’t enough. They shot 47.8% from beyond the three-point line, 93.3% from the free throw line, and won the turnover battle 11-6 and still couldn’t come away with the win.
Ohio State typically has a very good defense. That has shown up in all of the games that they have won this year. They just have to be more consistent on the offensive side of the court if they want to close games out like this. Losses like this can't continue to stack up if the Buckeyes want to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years.
The Buckeyes will have to find a way to get their inside game going when they host Maryland on Thursday night. They had essentially no inside presence against Illinois and probably should have lost by more than eight. If they don’t find a way to score closer to the basket, they’ll need to find a way to make up for it. If they don’t, they’ll fall again, and the 13-9 Bucks will get their 10th loss of the season.