The Ohio State Buckeyes come away with a much needed 80-73 road win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. But it would not be easy as Ohio State erased a 15-point deficit and had to rally all the way back against a team that was 7-6 coming into the night.
Bruce Thornton led the way with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and one assist, tallying up his third double-double of the season. While Devin Royal followed up with 16 points, three rebounds, and four assists doing just a little bit of everything.
It was a rough start for the Buckeyes to say the least. With two early fouls by Christoph Tilly, you started to get an eerie feeling as the Scarlet Nights opened it up to an early 10-8 lead. The home team kept their momentum going thanks to three straight makes from beyond the arc helping propel them to a 21-18 lead by time the second media timeout of the first half rolled around. Both teams were nearly shooting identical, but Ohio State was being dominated on the boards early on.Â
In fact, the Scarlet Knights opened it all the way up to a 39-24 lead. The Buckeyes were ice cold as they had gone over three minutes without scoring at all allowing an 11-0 run to happen.
Give Ohio State some credit though as they went on a 7-0 run to end the half cutting their deficit to just four. Rutgers still held a 41-37 halftime lead, but it was Brandon Noel giving a much needed spark to the offense who had all 14 of his points in just the first half.
How did Ohio State beat Rutgers on Friday night?
The Buckeyes came out of the half firing though as they went on a 10-2 run, making it a 17-5 run entirely going back to the first half. The run helped make it a 47-46 lead for Ohio State, their first since early on in the game. But the key to regaining the lead was a 6-1 rebounding advantage in just four minutes.Â
It ended up being a tale of two halves for the Buckeyes who kept the momentum going taking a 55-47 lead. It was a remarkably quick turnaround for a team who was down as many as 15 in the first half. The Scarlet Knights would refuse to go away though as it would turn into a back and forth game down the stretch. Rutgers would even retake the lead at 65-64 with 7:01 left to play.Â
But it would not be enough as Ohio State went on one last offensive surge which included a 9-2 run in the final minutes. You have to give a big shout out to Thornton who turned it up a notch in the second half where he scored 13 of his 20 points.
The Buckeyes improve to 10-3 on the season with a 80-73 win and next face the 13th ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers on Monday night.Â
