Ohio State’s Brice Sensabaugh (left) tries to dribble past Minnesota’s Jamison Battle during Thursday night’s game in Columbus (AP photo)
COLUMBUS — Brice Sensabaugh spent most of the night having a bad shooting performance in Ohio State basketball’s game against Minnesota, but he showed up when needed the most, even if it ultimately still led to a 70-67 loss on Thursday.
With 8.6 seconds left, the freshman tied the game at 67, getting to the free-throw line and making both shots. All the Buckeyes needed was a single stop to at least send the game to overtime. At first it looked like they’d get that in the form of a highlight block at a key moment for Isaac Likekele. But the play was instead whistled a foul, sending Talon Cooper to the line with 1.7 left to play.
“It looked like a clean block,” head coach Chris Holtmann said. “But we shouldn’t have had ourselves in that position. Officials made a call.”
The Buckeyes were out of timeouts, meaning all Cooper had to do was make one. He missed the first — adding more drama to the situation — before knocking down the second to give the Golden Gophers their first Big Ten win of the season.
OSU then failed to execute a final play, instead throwing the ball full court and out of bounds to give it back to Minnesota, which finished things off with two made free throws.
Ohio State basketball came into a Thursday night game considered a 15-point favorite against Minnesota but instead walked away with a three-point loss. It has now dropped three-straight games after starting Big Ten play 2-0, falling below .500 against conference opponents for the first time since starting out 1-2 during the 2020-21 season.
The Buckeyes spent the night playing from behind, battling their way back thanks to their own defensive flaws and lack of offensive execution. But they also dealt with a Golden Gophers team — which came into the game shooting just 43.2% from the field — that shot 50.8% and spent a good portion of the first half around 60%. Despite the hot shooting, Minnesota led by just two points at halftime, putting OSU in a position to put together a better second half and potentially walk away with a win.
Instead, things got worse.
Minnesota’s lead ballooned to as high as 11 in the second half, while Ohio State failed to generate much offensively, with no player having anything close to what we’ve accustomed to seeing from any individual player. Sensabaugh continued to lead OSU in scoring with 18 points but shot an underwhelming 6 of 18 from the field.
“Our job was to try to keep him in front,” Minnesota head coach Ben Johnson said. “He’s a really good one-on-one player (and) he’s really good (at shooting) standstill threes. Make him earn the tough twos.”
Justice Sueing (13 points), Sean McNeil (11 points) and Bruce Thornton (10 points) joined them in double figures, but the three shot a combined 11 of 32 in the process. As a team, the Buckeyes shot a season-low 40% from the field.
“It was our worse offensive game of the year,” Holtmann said. “Give them credit. I thought them going under ball screens bothered us. …It was our poorest offensive outing really in some time. Certainly this year.”
Meanwhile, Dawson Garvia led a Minnesota team that saw three players reach double figures with 27 points and nine rebounds. Cooper added a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Jamison Battle scored 11 points and Pharrel Payne had 10 points.
OSU’s defense has been a concern for most of the season, ranking 88th nationally in adjusted defense (97.9). But the offensive struggles were out of character for a team that ranked first in adjusted offense (119) and came into the game shooting 48.9% from the field.
Ohio State had a chance to right the ship on Thursday night against a team still looking for its first conference win. Instead, it made matters worse with what may be the worst loss of the Holtmann era.
“We’re obviously not guarding great (and) we’re not playing well together,” Holtmann said. “This is the worst offensive game of the year. There’s a lot to clean up there.
OSU”s starting center returns
After missing all but four minutes of the last two games, Zed Key returned for the Buckeyes wearing a large brace on his left shoulder. Key had 10 points and eight rebounds off the bench, despite not practicing leading up to the game. Eugene Brown started in his place in the first half, finishing with two points.
What’s Next
Ohio State will play the first of two-straight road games Sunday when it travels to Rutgers, hoping to end its first real losing streak since the 2020-21 season when it finished with four-straight losses.
