The Buckeyes (3-1) missed nine of their first ten shots from the field to fall behind early and eventually lost to Xavier (3-0) 71-65 in a game in which OSU never held a lead.
Xavier leld by as many as 11 in the first half and held a nine point lead at 35-26 when the first half came to a close.
OSU made a couple of runs in the second half, cutting the lead to five at 40-35, but Xavier answered to reestablish a lead of 11 at 46-35. Another OSU surge cut the lead to just three at 57-54, but once again the Muskateers answered go up by seven at 63-56 with just two minutes remaining on the game clock.
OSU had one last spurt left in them. Jamari Wheeler connected on a three pointer with 17 seconds left on the game clock to cut the Xavier lead to just two points at 67-65, but that was as close as the Buckeyes would get. Xavier closed out the scoring in the last 17 seconds to claim the win by making four free throws while keeping the Buckeyes off the scoreboard.
Xavier had four players reach double figures in scoring. Paul Scruggs had 14, Nate Johnson 12, Jack Nunge 14 and Adam Kunkel 10. Nunge also had 14 rebounds.
Ohio State was paced by E.J. Liddell with 17, Meechie Johnson with 14 and Kyle Young with 12. OSU had a poor shooting night from the field and made just 37.7% for their shot attempts.
Both teams were active defensively. Xavier totalled 10 steals while the Buckeyes registered nine blocked shots.
Photo courtesy of OhioStateBuckeyes.com
When will Coach have Airhns screen and pop (behind 3 point line). If you want to get a shooter open, have him screen first. The defense has to decide to defend man coming off screen and heading to basket or defend the screener from 3 point land. He’s one dimensional, so you have to find ways to get him open.
The issue with screening for Ahrens is every team we play KNOWS Ahrens only option off a screen is for him to shoot. There’s no need to guard/cover the screener who may be rolling to the basket. This allows the defense to double Ahrens and he can’t get off a shot nor pass to the post. Watch our top of the key screens, every team leaves the screener and doubles the ball and in most cases the Bucks can’t/don’t make a play off the screen and the ball usually goes further out top or wider on the wing and they reset.