Bruce Thornton (2) sets up the offense. Ohio State beat Minnesota 82-74 in overtime Tuesday at the Schottenstein Center Credit: Dominic Ferraro | Freelance Photographer.
For most of Tuesday night, energy was hard to come by — both in the stands and on the court.
But one player gave the Buckeyes life during regulation and stabilized an otherwise uneven offense: John Mobley Jr.
His teammates took care of the rest in overtime.
The Buckeyes earned their fifth Big Ten win of the season, 82-74 over Minnesota, behind 26 points from Mobley Jr. and 11 overtime points from Bruce Thornton and Devin Royal.
“I’m just proud of the way our guys battled and executed down the stretch on both sides of the ball,” Head coach Jake Diebler said.
Ohio State looked in control early. The Buckeyes jumped out to a 10-0 lead and held Minnesota without a field goal for the first six and a half minutes.
But five turnovers and six early fouls gave the Gophers a chance to find momentum. Three-point shooting was also an issue for the Buckeyes, as outside of five 3-pointers from Mobley Jr., Ohio State shot 2-of-13 from beyond the arc.
Minnesota primarily played a zone defense, which Diebler thought caused problems.
“Offensively got a little stagnant there in stretches, particularly against their zone,” Diebler said.
Despite enduring two separate scoreless stretches of more than four minutes, Ohio State’s defense carried it through the first half. The Buckeyes held Minnesota to 28% shooting and took a 31-28 lead into the break.
Ohio State opened the second half with renewed urgency, ripping off a 7-0 run that briefly pushed the lead to double digits and woke up the previously quiet Schottenstein Center.
The surge didn’t last.
The Buckeyes went scoreless for six minutes and nine seconds, allowing Minnesota to erase the deficit and tie the game with just under 11 minutes remaining.
From there, the game turned into a grind. The final five minutes featured 11 lead changes as both teams traded baskets in a back-and-forth stretch emblematic of Big Ten play.
“This was a Big Ten battle that had just an abnormal amount of runs from both teams,” Diebler said. “And I thought we had great responses throughout the course of the game.”
Minnesota had the final possession of regulation with a chance to win, but Ohio State forced two misses, sending the game to the Buckeyes’ second overtime of the season.
Royal set the tone in the extra period, knocking down back-to-back jumpers, including an and-one, to give Ohio State a 72-69 lead.
Moments later, Colin White delivered one of the game’s biggest plays, jumping a passing lane for a steal and finishing a fastbreak layup to push the lead to 76-71 with 1:49 remaining.
“That was a big momentum swing,” White said. “[Minnesota] called a timeout after that, and then I think we got a stop after that, so it was just swinging the game in the right direction.”
From there, Thornton took over. Ohio State’s leading scorer added six of his 23 points in the final 2:11 to put the game away.
While the Buckeyes’ bench scored just two points in regulation, the unit added four more in overtime as Ohio State outscored Minnesota 15-7 in the extra frame.
“Just coming in and making the dirty plays, getting offensive rebounds, getting assists,” White said. “Those are little things that the bench can do to help the starters out, give them a breather and play hard.”
