After beating the defending national champions, there is no place to go but down.
Ohio States mens basketball took a step backwards last night with a 70-67 loss to unranked Indiana in front of a sold-out crowd of 19,200 at the Schottenstein Center.
I think that loss just forfeited everything we accomplished in beating Michigan State, said junior co-captain Brian Brown. That was a tough loss.
IU junior center Kirk Haston, who scored 15 of his game-high 18 points in the second half, made two key defensive plays in the final 40 seconds to give the Hoosiers (13-9 overall, 4-4 Big Ten) the win.
Haston first stole an inbounds pass from junior Boban Savovic at mid-court and cruised to the other end for an easy layup to give Indiana the 67-64 lead with 37 seconds remaining. On the next trip down the court, Haston deflected Browns runner in the lane.
Sophomore guard Kyle Hornsby went on to hit two free throws to secure the win for the Hoosiers.
The loss dropped the Bucks (13-8 overall, 4-5 Big Ten) to seventh place in the conference and gave them an overall record of 41-6 in three years at the Schott, where they have never lost a game by more than three.
We made some poor plays and very bad decisions at the end, said OSU coach Jim OBrien. I dont know what that can be attributed to.
The Hoosiers implemented a full-court press during much of the game that was meant to rattle OSUs half-court offense.
Our press really hurt them, IU head coach Mike Davis said. They couldnt get into any sort of rhythm.
OBrien disagreed, saying, I dont think the pressure was all that big a deal. The thing that is disappointing is not getting the ball inbounds on simple out-of-bounds situations.
Besides the errant pass from half-court with 40 seconds remaining, the Buckeyes had at least one other noticeable turnover come directly off an inbounds pass. OSU finished with 17 turnovers while IU only had nine in the game.
Indiana ended up with three players in double digits. Junior center and sophomore guard Tom Coverdale led the team with 18 apiece and freshman forward Jared Jeffries added 16 points.
The lone Buckeye in double figures was Brown, who finished with 17.
Senior co-captain Ken Johnson had a solid game with eight points, ten rebounds and five blocks; however, he did finish only 3-of-10 from the field.
OSU cruised to an early lead in the first half, twice leading by nine. Brown stole the ball from Haston at midcourt and took it to the other end for a dunk to give the Bucks a 12-3 lead with 14:58 remaining in the first.
With 6:20 left in the half, sophomore forward Cobe Ocokoljic hit a three-pointer to again put the Buckeyes up by nine, 22-13. Indiana fought back by hitting three treys in the next six minutes and went into the locker room trailing by only one, 32-31.
In the second half, the Hoosiers grabbed a quick lead and hung on to it for most of the period. The largest IU lead was seven, which came on a couple different occasions.
The next test for OSU comes on the road, where the team will play six of their final eight regular season games before traveling to Chicago for the Big Ten tournament.
We have to keep our focus in practice and stay positive, said Johnson.
The Buckeyes will play at Minnesota at 8 p.m. this Saturday.
