After both Ohio State and Iowa snapped three-game losing streaks recently, the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes meet in Columbus tonight.
Ohio State secured their best win of the season on Tuesday night, beating Purdue 73-70 at Mackey Arena, snapping the 26-game home winning streak of the Boilermakers. The Buckeyes (11-8, 3-5) showed a lot of grit in the victory, erasing a 16-point first half deficit to upset their ranked foe. The victory halted Ohio State’s three-game losing streak, and gave Jake Diebler’s team a shot at finishing the month of January at .500 if they are able to beat Iowa tonight and Penn State in State College on Thursday evening.
Purdue went into the halftime break with a 41-28 lead and it looked like Ohio State was on their way to their fourth straight loss. Whatever was said in the Buckeye locker room at halftime must have struck a chord since Ohio State opened up the second half with a 17-2 run to take a 45-43 lead. Purdue looked like they regained their composure when they took a 59-53 lead with 7:22 left before the Buckeyes answered with a 15-0 spurt to open up a 68-59 lead. While the Boilermakers would make the score tight late, Ohio State wouldn’t relinquish the lead the rest of the game.
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Leading the comeback for the Buckeyes on Tuesday night was Micah Parrish, who hit six three-pointers and finished with a career-high 22 points. Parrish has had a solid month of January, scoring at least 11 points in five of Ohio State’s six games in 2025. The San Diego State transfer also was a beast on the boards, pulling down a team-high seven rebounds against the Boilermakers.
The contributions from Parrish were massive since not only did Colin White only play seven minutes in the game because of an injury, John Mobley Jr. was limited to just 19 minutes after taking a shot to the face in the first half. Mobley was able to return to the game, hitting a jumper with 29 seconds left in the game to push Ohio State’s lead to 70-67. The freshman finished with nine points.
Along with Parrish, the other Buckeyes to reach double figures in scoring against Purdue were Devin Royal and Bruce Thornton. Royal finished with 16 points and six rebounds in 36 minutes on the floor. The only game where Royal played more minutes was the double overtime victory against Minnesota a couple weeks ago. Thornton added 11 points, six rebounds, and five assists. With his scoring output, Thornton now sits 36th in school history with 1,245 points, passing Ron Stokes and Kaleb Wesson. Thornton is 28 points away from passing Keita Bates-Diop on Ohio State’s career scoring list.
Preview
Tonight’s opponent for Ohio State is the Iowa Hawkeyes, who also recently snapped a three-game losing streak with a 76-75 win over Penn State in Iowa City on Friday night. The tilt between the Nittany Lions and Hawkeyes (13-7, 4-5) saw Iowa create some distance at times but Penn State kept finding ways to keep clawing back, leaving the result hanging in the balance until time expired in the second half.
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Leading Iowa in scoring in the victory was Owen Freeman and Drew Thelwell, with both Hawkeyes netting 16 points. Freeman nearly recorded a double-double, falling a rebound short of the mark. The sophomore forward is not only leading Iowa with 16.9 points per game, his 6.7 rebounds per game is also the high mark on the team. Thelwell is in his first season in Iowa City after spending four years at Morehead State. The guard now has 1,004 career points and is averaging 10.2 points per game this campaign.
One player the Buckeyes will have to keep a very close eye on is Payton Sandfort since the senior can heat up in a hurry from behind the arc. Sandfort has seven games this year where he has hit at least four three-pointers, with his high being six triples in a 97-87 overtime win over Nebraska earlier this month. He won’t be the only Sandfort on the floor tonight, as his younger brother Pryce Sandfort is averaging 8.5 points per game as a sophomore.
Rounding out the backcourt for Iowa are Josh Dix and Brock Harding. Dix is third on the team with 13.9 points per game. The junior from Council Bluffs rarely comes off the floor, playing at least 33 minutes in each of the last four games. Harding has started all 20 games this year after seeing just 10 minutes per game as a freshman last year. The sophomore has shown he can be a tremendous distributor, averaging 6.2 assists per game in an offense that is averaging 86.8 points per contest.
The Buckeyes and Hawkeyes met twice last year with Iowa winning the only regular season meeting 79-77 in Iowa City in early February. Ohio State earned some revenge in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament with a 90-78 victory. The win in March marked the second year in a row that the Buckeyes have upended Iowa in the second round of the conference tournament, as Ohio State won 73-69 in 2023 in Chicago. Amazingly, in 170 games all-time between the programs, each team has won 85 times.
Prediction
Both teams enter this game breathing a sigh of relief after halting three-game losing streaks. The Buckeyes likely have a little more confidence right now since not only did they comeback to win at one of the toughest places to play in the country, Jake Diebler’s team also got a few extra days of rest since they haven’t had to play since Tuesday. For a team that has dealt with some injuries and absences throughout the season, the added time off is huge. While Ohio State will again be without Meechie Johnson Jr., the guard hasn’t played in over a month so the Buckeyes have adjusted to life without the guard.
Iowa’s ability to shoot from distance makes them a dangerous team, but their downfall is they don’t offer much on the defensive end. In their three road games so far this month, the Hawkeyes have allowed at least 94 points in each of those contests. If Ohio State can get John Mobley Jr. going from behind the arc early, it could be a long night for Fran McCaffery’s squad.
There are going to be a couple interesting matchups in this game. Owen Freeman is a force on the block for Iowa, Devin Royal has been playing with more confidence each time out for the Buckeyes this year. At guard, Brock Harding has been putting up some gaudy assist numbers, but he’ll have his work cut out for him against Bruce Thornton.
While it’s never smart to count out a team that can shoot like Iowa can, they just aren’t as tough as we have become used to over the last few years. The Buckeyes come out of the gates fresh and win their second game in a row, giving them the opportunity to finish the month at .500 if they can beat Penn State on Thursday night.
ESPN BPI: Ohio State 74.9%
Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
TV: FS1
LGHL score prediction: Ohio State 82, Iowa 75