Ohio State collapses in second half, drops road stunner to Penn State
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – They booed. They jeered. One of their own was back inside the Bryce Jordan Center, and Penn State’s students had a script for him.
Evan Mahaffey, whose one season at Penn State totaled 9.4 minutes, 2.8 points and 1.7 rebounds in 34 appearances, took top billing on the “Cheer Sheet” distributed to all members of the Nittany Lions’ “Legion Of Blue” student section. There, under the header “Rotten Buckeyes,” was Mahaffey, accused in all caps of having “chose the easy way out” by transferring to Ohio State when coach Micah Shrewsberry left for Notre Dame.
They would have occasion to cheer by the end. Jamison Battle missed an open 3-pointer from the left corner with about 10 seconds left, and Penn State (5-5, 1-1 Big Ten) roared back from an 18-point deficit to stun Ohio State (8-2, 1-1), 83-80, on Saturday night.
Penn State snapped a five-game losing streak and Ohio State's seven-game winning streak.
"We just didn’t have enough fight, honestly," Ohio State's Roddy Gayle Jr., who had 11 points, said. "We didn’t have enough effort to sustain the energy we did in the first half. I think we did a pretty decent job in the first half, rebounding the ball, taking care of the ball, limiting turnovers. In the second half they picked up their pressure."
Ahead by 18 points in the opening minutes of the second half, Ohio State looked poised for a leisurely stroll toward its seventh straight win. Instead, Penn State’s Kanye Clary got hot, Ohio State went cold from the floor and the Nittany Lions’ crowd had plenty of reasons not involving Mahaffey to make some noise.
A Battle 3-pointer gave Ohio State a 55-37 lead with 15:31 to play, but the home team would steadily chip away. First, a 14-4 run trimmed it to a 59-51 score as Penn State opened the second half by hitting 9 of its first 12 shots. Bruce Thornton’s 3-pointer and Zed Key’s slam dunk briefly settled things, pushing it back to a 13-point lead, but the Nittany Lions kept coming.
A jumper from Zach Hicks made it 65-64 with 6:51 left and made Penn State a blistering 14 for 21 from the floor and 6 for 8 from 3 to open the second half. Gayle Jr. swished a 3-pointer from the right corner to make it a two-possession game, but with 5:12 to play D'Marco Dunn drew a foul on Battle and went to the line for two free throws and the Ohio State lead at 68-66.
A Leo O'Boyle 3-pointer with 2:33 left finally pulled Penn State even at 74, and the Nittany Lions would miss three shots after a Gayle turnover that would've given them the lead. Instead, Felix Okpara cleaned up a Thornton miss with 1:09 left to give the Buckeyes the lead.
Ace Baldwin answered with a driving layup, and Okpara was whistled for a moving screen turnover to give Penn State the ball with 50 seconds left. Baldwin then sized up Thornton and sunk a 3-pointer from straight on with 30.9 seconds left for his team's first lead since it was 17-16.
Penn State shot 60.6% from the floor in the second half and out-rebounded Ohio State 19-17. The Nittany Lions, after only grabbing two first-half offensive rebounds, had 10 in the second half.
"I don’t think we anticipated that it was going to be anything other than a really tough game," Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said. "We just needed to get some defensive rebounds. When we could get stops, we didn’t rebound it well enough."
Serenaded with chants of “traitor!” when he was at the free-throw line and otherwise just booed every time he touched the ball, Mahaffey nevertheless made an immediate impact. On the game’s first possession, he drew a foul from Puff Johnson, who grabbed him near the basket as Battle missed a 3-pointer.
It allowed Ohio State to keep possession, and given a second chance Bruce Thornton hit a 3 for the opening lead. The Buckeyes scored on their first four possessions, the final of which was a Battle 3 from the right corner assisted by Mahaffey, to open up an 11-4 lead. Penn State battled back, briefly getting the home crowd into it, and took a lead with 12:01 left in the half when Gayle Jr. fouled O’Boyle on a missed 3-point attempt.
It was Gayle’s second foul of the half, and his late closeout sent O’Boyle to the line for three free throws. He hit them all, pushing the Nittany Lions ahead 17-16, but that would last for all of 26 seconds. Ohio State’s Zed Key scored from the left block, spinning over his right shoulder to put Ohio State back ahead, 18-17, and it was one field goal in a sequence where the Buckeyes scored on seven straight possessions and eight of nine to build a 31-22 lead. The only empty possession ended with Dale Bonner missing a wide-open 3, and it was capped by a Thornton drive, finish from the right block and free throw after being fouled with exactly eight minutes left in the half.
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As Thornton’s teammates helped pick him off the floor and both teams entered into the media timeout, a flexing Key strode from the bench to midcourt to celebrate the sophomore.
The Buckeyes led 41-29 at halftime despite Thornton and Gayle, their two leading scorers on the season, sidelined for stretches after picking up two first-half fouls. As Holtmann got creative with his substitutions, freshman Scotty Middleton scored 8 points before the break on two 3-pointers and a pull-up jumper from the midrange.
Ohio State held a 26-12 rebounding advantage at the half and shot 53.6% (15 for 28) while holding Penn State to 34.4% (11 for 32) and using its size and physicality to force the Nittany Lions to convert only 33.3% of their layups (3 for 9).
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State melts down in second half, loses on road at Penn State
