Gott ‘em: Bruce Thornton, Buckeyes overwhelm Doug Gottlieb’s Green Bay Phoenix, 102-69

Bruce Thornton outplayed the nation’s leading scorer as the Buckeyes picked up their third straight win.

The Ohio State men’s basketball team (5-1) did not look ahead to Friday night’s game, nor did they let the looming drama and uncertainty surrounding sophomore forward Aaron Bradshaw distract them from the task at hand Monday night against the fighting Doug Gottliebs. Three days after dropping 104 points on Campbell at the Schottenstein Center, the Buckeyes followed it up on Monday night with a 102-69 win over the Green Bay Phoenix (2-5).

Jake Diebler’s team was as healthy as they’ve been this entire season, with senior guard Ques Glover the only player listed on the Ohio State injury report. Glover was listed as “questionable” after suffering a sprained ankle during Ohio State’s 78-64 loss to Texas A&M on November 15. He did not play in Ohio State’s previous two games, and did not wind up playing Monday either.

The aforementioned Bradshaw, who started the first four games of the season for Ohio State, was listed as “out.” Per the university, Bradshaw is going through a “university process” and is away from the team. On Monday afternoon, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Bradshaw was being investigated for a “domestic incident” at his off-campus residence last week. Neither the team nor the university confirmed the Dispatch’s report.

With Bradshaw out, Diebler went with his normal three guards — Bruce Thornton, Meechie Johnson, and Micah Parrish. At forward, Devin Royal made his second start of the season and Sean Stewart essentially replaced Bradshaw at the five.

Fellow first-year head coach Doug Gottlieb’s lineup starts with senior guard Anthony Roy, who entered Monday night’s game as the nation’s leading scorer at 28 points per game. Alongside him were Jeremiah Johnson, Preston Ruedinger, Fosters Wonders, and Marcus Hall.

After trading eight empty possessions, Ohio State scored the first bucket of the game on a Johnson three-pointer from the left wing. Green Bay was sending extra attention to Thornton but seemed okay leaving Johnson open off the double team, so the senior guard put up three more three-pointers before the first media timeout, knocking down two of them. A Roy foul on a driving Parrish stopped the game 4:12 into the game with Ohio State leading 8-5.

Stewart was a force on the glass in the first half, snatching six rebounds by the under-eight timeout of the first half. He and his teammates were starting to separate themselves, but a few blown defensive assignments allowed Green Bay to score three easy baskets early and stay within arm’s reach. With 7:04 left in the first half, the Buckeyes led 28-19. Johnson and Evan Mahaffey combined to score 15 of Ohio State’s first 28 points.

Even when guarded tight Roy hit tough shot after tough shot for Green Bay, and the result was a close-ish game at halftime. The Buckeyes jogged to the locker room up 42-32, but Roy had 14 of his team’s 32. The Buckeyes knocked down nine three-pointers in the first half but were just 7-for-17 (41.1%) from two-point range.

Green Bay cut that Ohio State lead down to seven points by the first media timeout of the second half, just over four minutes into the half. Roy buried another pair of three-pointers to bring his game-long total to 20, and Diebler called a timeout to get his team together. Roy walked towards center court, clapping and screaming and his teammates ran his way.

Roy and his buddies just kept swinging. Each time the Buckeyes knocked down a big shot that might represent a run, Gottlieb’s team had an answer. After John Mobley buried his first three-pointer of the game with 12:12 left in the game to put Ohio State up 61-51, he went to the other end and was called for a blocking foul on a drive by Green Bay’s Ben Tweedy. The freshman guard from Australia missed the free throw, but Ohio State’s lead still sat at 61-53 with just under 12 minutes to go.

Over a five-minute span, Thornton scored 13 points to set a new season-high with 22 (he would go on to finish with 25) and help Ohio State extend its eight-point lead to a 16-point lead with just over 10 minutes left in the game. After deferring to teammates in the first half Thornton showed why he’s an All-American candidate in the second half.

Thornton’s hot stretch sparked a dominant final 10 minutes for Ohio State, as the Buckeyes went on a 30-7 run to finally put the Phoenix to bed. Green Bay hung around for longer than Evansville or Campbell, but Ohio State simply had too many offensive weapons to stop. When the buzzer sounded, the Buckeyes had put the bow on a 102-69 win.

If you opted for Monday Night Football or just weren’t able to catch Ohio State’s game on Monday night for whatever reason, here’s a rundown of the most impactful players during the Buckeyes’ fifth win of the season:

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Sean Stewart

The sophomore forward has essentially become the Buckeyes’ starting center now with Bradshaw out and got his longest run of the season Monday night. Partially that had to do with Bradshaw being out, but Stewart also played better defense and stayed out of foul trouble, not picking up his third foul until midway through the second half. Stewart scored 11 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and blocked a shot in 22 minutes.

Anthony Roy

The nation’s leading scorer was electric in the first half with 14 points, including a quartet of three-pointers. No other Green Bay player had more than four points in the first half of Monday night’s game. He kept his team into this game deep into the second half — Ohio State did not pull away until the final 10 minutes or so, mostly because of him. He finished with 30 points and knocked down eight three-pointers in 34 minutes.

Meechie Johnson

Johnson played his best half of basketball against Green Bay Monday night over the first 20, scoring 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc. It was the first time this season that Meechie had knocked down at least four three-pointers in a game and was also the first time he’d ever hit five three-pointers while wearing a Buckeye uniform.

Meechie helped space the floor for Thornton in the second half and didn’t attack like he did in the first half, but still finished with a season-high 17 points.

Bruce Thornton

Thornton’s scoring pace so far this season is well below what he finished with as a sophomore, but he’s been taking care of the ball better than anyone else in the country. Ohio State’s star guard scored nine points in the first half but went nuts in the second half, at one point scoring 13 points in a span of just over five minutes.

He also finished with a season-high nine assists — the third consecutive game that he registered at least seven assists. That’s the best three-game stretch of Thornton’s career distributing the basketball, and during those three games, he committed just two turnovers.

Thornton finished with 25 points and nine assists in 32 minutes.

Evan Mahaffey

The sophomore forward moved back to the bench Monday night after starting Friday, but Mahaffey has been stellar shooting the ball through the first six games of the year. Entering Monday’s game, Mahaffey was shooting an even 60% from the field, which was the best mark on the team among the nine Buckeyes playing 10 minutes or more per game.

Mahaffey was all over the box score on Monday night, finishing with 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting, three rebounds, four assists, two blocks, and one steal in 18 minutes.

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What’s next?

The Buckeyes (5-1) are off until Friday when they welcome the Pittsburgh Panthers (6-1) to Columbus. Pitt is not ranked but was the second team listed among the teams receiving votes this week (Ohio State was two spots behind them).

The Panthers’ only loss this season came at the hands of the undefeated Wisconsin Badgers Sunday afternoon in the title game of the Greenbrier Tipoff Event in West Virginia. Pitt is ranked No. 17 in KenPom, one spot ahead of Ohio State.

Ohio State’s game against Pitt is set to tip off at 2:30 p.m. ET on Friday and will be broadcast on Peacock.