Ohio State hopes their strong close to January carries over to February when they take on the Illinois Fighting Illini this afternoon.
Following a tough start to January, Ohio State closed the month out on a three-game winning streak. The latest of those victories came on Thursday night, a 83-64 triumph over Penn State in State College.
The Buckeyes were in control for the majority of the game, taking a 7-4 lead on a John Mobley Jr. three-pointer just over three minutes into the game, and not relinquishing the lead the rest of the way. After taking a 43-33 lead into the halftime break, Ohio State extended their lead in the second half, earning their second straight win by at least 17 points after beating Iowa 82-65 in Columbus on Monday night.
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Mobley had the best performance of his young college career, scoring a team-high 19 points, dishing out eight assists, and pulling down five rebounds against the Nittany Lions. The freshman is just the fourth Buckeye in the last 35 years to record 19/8/5 in a road game.
Bruce Thornton added 17 points, hitting five of the seven three-pointers he attempted. Thornton and Mobley were the only Ohio State players to hit from behind the arc against Penn State, going 8-of-15 from distance. Devin Royal and Micah Parrish also finished in double figures on Thursday night. Royal nearly recorded a double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing nine rebounds, while Parrish scored 12 points.
With his scoring output against the Nittany Lions, Thornton now sits 35th in Ohio State history with 1,277 career points. This afternoon Thornton could move up a couple more spots. Sitting just ahead of Thornton are Jared Sullinger with 1,282 points, the 1,285 career points Clark Kellogg scored, and if he scores 22 points Thornton will move past E.J. Liddell. Along with the scoring marks he could hit, the guard needs just three more assists to record 350 dimes in his career in Columbus.
Jake Diebler’s team really got after it on the boards against Penn State, finishing the game with a 41-23 edge over the Nittany Lions on the glass. Even more impressive is the Buckeyes were able to grab 13 offensive rebounds, which led to an 18-4 edge in second chance points in the game. Complimenting what Royal was able to do rebounding the basketball, three other Ohio State players had at least five rebounds in the game, including Ivan Njegovan, who finished with a season-high six rebounds in just 13 minutes on the floor.
Preview
Ohio State’s opponent today also played on the road on Thursday night, but didn’t find as much success as the Buckeyes. Illinois fell 80-74 in overtime at Nebraska, suffering their third loss in the last four games. The 18th-ranked Fighting Illini were short-handed in the game, as big man Tomislav Ivisic missed his second straight game as he deals with a bad case of mono. On Saturday, Brad Underwood said that Ivisic is “questionable” for Sunday but that he’s barely been able to do anything at practice this week and is sleeping 16 hours per day.
Despite battling back from a 40-31 halftime deficit to tie the game on a Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn three-pointer with 46 seconds left in the second half, Illinois wasn’t able to keep pace with the Cornhuskers in the extra session.
Kasparas Jakucionis did all he could to try and will the Fighting Illini to victory, finishing with 18 points, 13 rebounds, and four assists on Thursday night. Jakucionis has been one of the most impressive players in the country in his first season at Illinois, averaging 16.0 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game. The Lithuanian now has four double-doubles on the season. Earlier this season Jakucionis had a stretch where he scored at least 20 points in six consecutive games.
The Fighting Illini received a lot of production from their bench against the Cornhuskers. Not only did Will Riley score 16 points off the bench, Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn added 15 points off the pine. Riley is a forward from Canada who had a strong start to his college basketball career, scoring at least 10 points in five of the first six games this year.
Despite struggling to find the bottom of the net in Big Ten play, the freshman is averaging 10.4 points per game this season. Gibbs-Lawhorn is in his second season with the Fighting Illini, averaging 8.0 points per game in 17.7 minutes per contest after seeing just 7.1 minutes per game as a freshman.
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To counter the youth of guys like Jakucionis, Riley, and Gibbs-Lawhorn, Illinois brought in Arizona guard Kylan Boswell in the transfer portal. Boswell started 35 games for the Wildcats last year, averaging 9.6 points per game. This year Boswell has not only increased his scoring to 12.0 points per game, he is also averaging 5.4 rebounds per contest, which is three more than he averaged last year in Tucson.
Along with Boswell, Brad Underwood added former USC and Louisville guard Tre White to the roster in the offseason. Against Nebraska, White finished with eight points and 13 rebounds, and is averaging 10.2 points per game and 5.7 rebounds per game this season.
With or without Ivisic in the lineup, Illinois is one of the most ferocious rebounding teams in the country. In the loss to Nebraska, the Fighting Illini outrebounded the Cornhuskers 58-42, and for the season Illinois is averaging 45.6 rebounds per game. Ivisic is the team’s leading rebounder this year, averaging 8.5 boards per game, but as they showed on Thursday night, they can still get it done on the glass without the seven-footer from Croatia.
When fully healthy, Illinois is a threat to make it to the Final Four. Not only did the Fighting Illini push Tennessee to the wire earlier this season, they have quality wins over Wisconsin, Arkansas, Missouri, and Oregon. Last year Brad Underwood’s team made it to the Elite Eight, marking the first time he took Illinois past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament since taking over in Champaign prior to the 2017-18 season.
In each of the last five seasons, Illinois has won at least 20 games, and is well on their way to hitting that mark this year with 14 wins entering today’s contest.
Prediction
Not that Ohio State can’t go on the road and win in a tough environment, as evidenced by their win in West Lafayette over Purdue last month, but they are going to have their hands full with Illinois this afternoon. At least the Buckeyes are catching the Fighting Illini at the right time, since Ivisic has missed the last two games and Illinois has lost three of their last four contests.
Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, they aren’t at full strength either, with Meechie Johnson Jr. still not playing due to personal reasons, as well as Colin White not having played since the Purdue game. Ohio State is going to need as many bodies as possible with the physicality Illinois will throw at them.
One key for the Buckeyes this afternoon is to stay out of foul trouble. Even though it didn’t hurt them on Thursday night, both Sean Stewart and Aaron Bradshaw fouled out against the Nittany Lions, with both big men only playing 13 minutes. Ivan Njegovan almost joined them on the disqualification list, committing four fouls in 13 minutes.
As a team, Illinois is shooting 75 percent from the free throw line this year, so giving them an opportunity to get some easy points at the foul line is not a recipe for success, especially at their place.
At least if this game is close, Ohio State can lean on their experience in close games this season. Even though they haven’t always ended in victory, the Buckeyes know how to play with their backs against the wall in crunch time. Between a near comeback in the second half at Wisconsin, the comeback at Purdue, and a number of other tight Big Ten games, Ohio State at least has some experience when the game is close late, and hopefully have learned from some of the mistakes they have made against Michigan State, Indiana, and Oregon.
Despite the recent roll they’ve been on, this feels like a game where Ohio State is going to fall just short. With the likes of Jakucionis, Boswell, and Riley, the Fighting Illini have just a little too much offensive punch for the Buckeyes to handle on the road. Brad Underwood has likely laid into his team over the past few days since they have lost three of four games, which could be bad news for Ohio State since they’ll be squaring off with a motivated Illinois squad in their barn.
ESPN BPI: Illinois 72.6%
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET
TV: CBS
LGHL score prediction: Illinois 81, Ohio State 76