Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann puts his hands up after questioning a call in the second half of the game against Michigan State on Feb. 17. Ohio State lost 44-62. Credit: Casey Cascaldo | Managing Editor for Multimedia
Kaleb Wesson and what army?
Not much of one Friday, as a 22-point, 13-rebound night from the Buckeye big man couldn’t save Ohio State from a late Wisconsin run and a second straight loss 61-57 in the Schottenstein Center.
“I think late, that’s been the one difference is we have not had a whole lot of one-, two-possession games late in games where that question has had to be answered,” Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said.
That question is who, outside of Wesson, can establish themselves as a solid second scoring option for the Buckeyes when it matters? The answer, against Wisconsin, was no one.
Wesson shot a red-hot 7-for-10 on the night, but the rest of the Buckeyes hit just 9-for-37 for 24 percent shooting.
Sophomore guard Duane Washington came closest to a sidekick role, scoring 18 in the game and the final six Buckeye points, but it came on a putrid 6-for-19 shooting in the game.
“I thought there were probably five [shots] that I did not like,” Holtmann said.
Since returning from a two-game absence due to a rib injury, Washington is shooting just 32 percent from the field. He shot 52 percent in the nine previous games.
Wesson was dominant down low all game, overcoming frequent double-teams to score on a variety of jump-hooks. When he wasn’t scoring, he was drawing fouls on the Badger big men and got to the free throw line nine times.
Naturally it was Wesson that took the biggest shot of the night for the Buckeyes, down 57-54 with 16 seconds remaining.
The look was a 3 from the top of the arc for Wesson, who hit his only other 3-point attempt earlier in the night. This one was errant though, and the Badgers held on to win.
It was Wesson’s only shot attempt in the final five minutes of the game, while Washington took five.
“He’s our best player. We’ve got to find a way to get him the ball in those situations,” Holtmann said.
While no Buckeye starter other than Wesson and Washington scored in double figures, Ohio State’s two freshmen sparkplugs provided even less support for Wesson off the bench.
Guard D.J Carton, who entered Ohio State’s third-leading scorer at 10.5 points per game, was held scoreless and shot the ball just one time –– an uncharacteristic missed dunk attempt in the first half. He missed both his free throw attempts in the game.
After averaging 14.6 points in the three games prior, Carton has been held to a total of three points in the Buckeyes’ past two games –– both losses.
“He’ll respond the right way, I’m confident he will,” Holtmann said. “Freshmen go through some of these struggles, we gotta help him through it.”
With junior forward and regular starter Kyle Young out after having his appendix removed Sunday, freshman forward E.J. Liddell figured to be more of a factor in the game as the only natural power forward that plays regular minutes for the Buckeyes.
Instead, he finished with two points and no rebounds in 13 minutes.
“I thought he needs to play more physical,” Holtmann said.
Liddell’s two points were the only two scored by the Buckeye bench in the game. Beside he and Carton, sophomore forward Justin Ahrens was the only other Ohio State player to see time off the sideline, but he played just two minutes.
An early second-half barrage from the Buckeyes, which included 3s from both senior forward Andre Wesson and Washington as well as nine straight points from Kaleb Wesson, helped give Ohio State a 38-31 lead.
It looked as though the Buckeyes might pull away from there, but they were outscored 22-12 in the final nine minutes behind a lack of consistent offense.
“Coaches saw that I had the hot hand early and they decided they wanted to feed me more. And my teammates, they found me in the right spots for me to score and then towards the end we saw that they were gonna collapse and it was time for their shots,” Kaleb Wesson said. “We just gotta knock those down.”
If Ohio State can’t pull out a better performance Tuesday at No. 15 Maryland, it risks dropping its third straight game and continuing to free fall down the AP Poll.
