Throughout Ohio State’s nine-game Big Ten win streak, the Buckeyes pulled out games in almost every conceivable way. They won when some of their stars had slow starts. They won when their 3-pointers weren’t falling, and when their opponents’ deep shots were. They won despite facing double-digit deficits, and they overcame foul trouble to their starters.
Thursday night in Columbus, when all of those things happened at the same time, Chris Holtmann finally suffered his first conference loss as Buckeye head coach, 82-79. But it took the full 40 minutes, and a miraculous final-second shot to do it.
Penn State came out of the locker room on fire, draining their first five 3-point shots, and six of their first seven. They built a 12-point lead before Bates-Diop hit his first shot from the field.
The junior forward was listed as questionable to even play the game due to an illness and started slowly, before he eventually got going. He scored nine points in an eight-minute span as the Buckeyes roared back to tie the game at 30.
The Lions responded with an 8-3 run before the Buckeyes cut it back to a one-point game at the half.
After the break, it was more of the same. OSU had a 43-42 lead early, but PSU continued to rain in buckets from deep. A five-minute field goal drought from the Buckeyes helped the Lions build a 13-point lead with eight minutes to play.
Making things even worse for OSU, Bates-Diop spent time on the bench with four fouls, and then had to play cautiously on the defensive end after returning.
Still, the Buckeyes battled back. Bates-Diop hit a 3-pointer to cut it to 77-71 with 2:07 to play, then hit another to trim it to 77-74 with 1:15 on the clock.
Tate, also playing with four fouls, drove the baseline and hit a reverse layup to make it a one-point game with 20 seconds left. After Penn State hit a pair of free throws to extend their lead to 79-76, Bates-Diop drilled a 3-pointer from well outside the arc with just five seconds to play, tying the game at 79-all and sending the Schottenstein Center crowd into a frenzy.
But a night when it seemed the Nittany Lions couldn’t miss from deep ended on an appropriate note. Tony Carr banked in a shot from close to half court as the buzzer sounded, sending the Lions home with an 82-79 win.
Overall, Penn State shot 58% from the field, and hit an incredible 11-for-14 from behind the arc.
Ohio State falls to 9-1 in conference play and 18-5 overall. With Purdue’s win over Michigan earlier in the evening, OSU has now fallen out of first place in the Big Ten.