Ohio State junior forward Kaleb Wesson looks for a shot against Illinois. Ohio State won 71-63 March 5. Credit: Cori Wade | Assistant Photo Editor
Twenty percent from 3 isn’t exactly a recipe for success for Ohio State men’s basketball.
Luckily for head coach Chris Holtmann and the Buckeyes, they got everything they needed down low Thursday to close out home play in the regular season with a ranked win.
Junior forward Kaleb Wesson poured in 15 of his 19 points in the second half as No. 19 Ohio State (21-9, 11-8 Big Ten) took care of No. 23 Illinois (20-10, 12-7) 71-63 at home to capture its ninth victory in 11 games.
“Players win games, and this was a heck of a win when it didn’t always look great for us, because he weren’t making a lot of shots, honestly,” Holtmann said.
Up three points with less than 4:30 to play in the game, Kaleb Wesson embarked on 5-0 run himself, converting an and-one before putting back a miss from freshman forward E.J. Liddell to extend the lead to 63-55.
The 6-foot-9 forward fouled out late after a 7-for-10 night shooting, but the Buckeyes held onto the win.
Around the midway mark in the final half, Kaleb Wesson faked a pass out of the double team to earn single-coverage. Wesson pivoted away from the hoop and knocked down a turnaround fadeaway jumper from the mid-post to tie the game 51-51.
The next trip down, Liddell cleaned up the glass on a missed layup from sophomore guard Luther Muhammad, throwing down a putback dunk nearly as thunderous as the reaction from the home crowd to give the Buckeyes a 2-point lead.
With five minutes to play, Liddell struck again, hitting a fallaway jumper with the shot clock expiring to put Ohio State up five points. Liddell finished with 17 points on 7-for-9 shooting.
“It’s really been about five weeks where we’ve all sat in here and said, ‘Here he comes,'” Holtmann said.
After trailing nearly the whole way up to that point, Kaleb Wesson knocked down a 3 from the wing on a cross-court pass from senior forward Andre Wesson to give the Buckeyes a 40-39 lead in the opening five minutes of the second half.
Kaleb Wesson connected from distance again 3:20 later, but it was to keep the Buckeyes down four, as Illinois scored eight of the 10 points in between.
The first 3 from the Buckeye big man capped a 10-0 run that breathed new life into the Senior Night crowd.
“We had so many guys step up and make big plays,” Holtmann said. “You can just go down the line right now, really. Obviously E.J. [Liddell] was phenomenal, Kaleb was terrific.”
To begin the game, redshirt senior guard Danny Hummer not only started his final home game, he scored its first points, laying the ball off the glass on a dribble drive.
“It was special. Just being able to be out there with my guys, it was a great opportunity and I’ll remember it for a long time,” Hummer said.
Hummer played nearly the first five minutes, but the Buckeye faithful didn’t have much to cheer about for long, as Illinois took as large as an 11-point lead before heading to halftime up 37-30.
Before the 11:08 mark, an emphatic two-handed dunk from Illinois’ 7-foot, 290-pound freshman center Kofi Cockburn gave the Fighting Illini a 20-9 lead. The play capped a 6-0 Cockburn run in the game.
The energy of Ohio State redshirt junior guard CJ Walker helped the Buckeyes claw back in it though, as he had a hand in the next six points for the home team.
Between two sets of Walker free throws, the former Florida State guard dished inside to Liddell, who finished with a dunk inside. Walker finished the game 11-for-13 from the free throw line, and Liddell had a team-high nine points in the opening half.
Just over a minute later, sophomore guard Duane Washington hit a transition 3, but Illinois sophomore guard Ayo Dosunmu kept the visitors up 24-18 on a backdoor cut for a layup.
Dosunmu was met with little resistance on a slew of slice-and-dice drives to the hoop in the first half, finishing with a game-high 14 points. At the final horn, Dosunmu had 21, but he didn’t score in the final 11:10 of the game.
“Luther [Muhammad] did a great job on Ayo. The last 25 minutes he really locked in and got the job done on him,” Andre Wesson said.
With Andre Wesson guarding him, Dosunmu found separation on a dribble pullback to hit a deep 2-pointer with under a minute left to make it 35-28 Illinois.
It wasn’t until 6:31 that either Wesson brother scored, but senior forward Andre Wesson hit from inside following two free throws from junior forward Kaleb Wesson to tie the game at 24-24.
But the Fighting Illini finished the half on a 13-6 run, with nine points in the stretch coming courtesy of Dosunmu.
Ohio State closes out its regular season against Michigan State in East Lansing, Michigan, Sunday at 4:30 p.m.
