Ohio State overcomes messy first half to bury Evansville by 50 points, 80-30

The Buckeyes played their worst first half of basketball on Tuesday night, but righted the ship after the halftime break.

Four days after getting a minor wake-up call in College Station, the Ohio State men’s basketball team (3-1) returned to Columbus to begin a four-game homestand, starting with the Evansville Purple Aces (1-4) Tuesday night at the Schottenstein Center.

Evansville, which was picked to finish ninth in the 12-team Missouri Valley Conference, has had a rough go of it thus far, losing all four games they’ve played against D-I teams. The Aces have allowed 80 or more points in all four losses this season, including allowing 92 points to Radford on Saturday night. Evansville led by as much as 22 points in the first half, but were outscored 60-31 in the second half and lost, 92-81.

Their only win this season was against NAIA Brescia College.

The Buckeyes, while not down any starters, came into Tuesday night’s game without multiple backups. Austin Parks and Ques Glover were both ruled out with undisclosed injuries before the game started.

Head coach Jake Diebler stuck with the same lineup he’s used through the first three games — Bruce Thornton, Meechie Johnson, Micah Parrish, Sean Stewart, and Aaron Bradshaw.

Third-year head coach David Ragland went with a starting five of Cam Haffner, Tayshawn Comer, Tanner Cuff, Gabriel Pozzato, and Joshua Hughes.

For as uneven as Ohio State looked to start the game against Texas A&M last week, tonight was without a doubt worse. The Buckeyes hit one of their first five shots over the first five minutes, trailing the Purple Aces 5-2 before Johnson knocked down a three-pointer to tie things up, 5-5. Diebler said mid-week that he wanted to create more shot opportunities for his team, but the Buckeyes only took six shots over the first 5:47 of Tuesday night’s game.

The Purple Aces defense continued to rise to the occasion as the first half wore on. Evansville was generally satisfied giving up on offensive rebounds to get back on defense and prevent Ohio State from pushing any kind of pace, and it worked. The Buckeyes’ offensive possessions didn’t have any clear goal in mind, and many possessions ended with a difficult, contested shot at the buzzer. By the under-eight timeout, Ohio State still only led 11-9.

Ohio State closed the first half on a 12-0 run over the final 5:11, taking a 28-14 lead into the locker room. The Buckeyes held Evansville to 12.9% shooting in the first half, (4-31), but they themselves only shot 29.2% (7-24) and were 2-of-11 from three-point range in the first half. Devin Royal had a big first half, scoring 10 points and grabbing eight rebounds, with six of his 10 first-half points coming at the free throw line.

Parrish drove to the basket and scored on three of Ohio State’s first four possessions in the second half, pushing the Buckeyes’ lead to 34-18 two minutes into the back half of the game. By the under-12 media timeout, Ohio State had doubled up Evansville, 48-24. The Buckeyes hit 8 of their first 15 shots to start the second half, a stark difference from the first few minutes of the game. Devin Royal grabbed his 10th rebound of the game five minutes in to the second half, giving him his first career double-double and a new career-high in rebounds.

The Buckeyes continued to choke out the Purple Aces on the defensive end, pushing their lead to a whopping 40 points by the final media timeout, 69-29. Even when the offense wasn’t clicking, Ohio State’s defense did not waver, and when the offense did start clicking it was off to the races. The Buckeyes were especially good at guarding the perimeter on Tuesday night, holding Evansville to 11.1% shooting from beyond the arc.

By the time all was said and done, the Buckeyes had wrapped up a dominant 80-30 win over Evansville to advance to 3-1 on the season.

If you weren’t around Tuesday night to catch Ohio State’s bounce-back win over a rare Missouri Valley foe (or you don’t have Big Ten-plus, which is reasonable), here are a few key moments that were critical during the Buckeyes’ third win of the season:

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Evansville takes an early lead

For the second straight game, Ohio State stacked a ton of empty possessions together, scoring just two points over the first 5:08 of the game against the 164th-best defense in the country (per KenPom). The Buckeyes possessions were slow, had little purpose, and allowed Evansville to settle into a half court defense every possession. Ohio State took six shots over first five minutes of the game.

Evansville looked bad early on too, but that was more expected of the team picked to finish towards the bottom of the MVC. However, a Michael Day three-pointer gave the Purple Aces their first lead of the night 4:49 into the game, and after Johnson’s triple tied it back up, Comer scored three straight points to put Evansville ahead yet again, 8-5.

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Mobley with the bucket and the block

With 6:35 remaining in the first half and the game tied at 12, John Mobley Jr. dribbled into heavy traffic and put up a one-legged jumper that kissed off the backboard and dropped in, giving Ohio State a 14-12 lead. On the next play (at the other end), Mobley timed a jump perfectly to block Comer’s layup, and Sean Stewart was there to grab the loose ball. Devin Royal would go on to score on that possession, extending the Buckeyes’ lead to 16-12 with 6:13 left in the first half.

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Devin Royal’s huge first half

Not much went right for Ohio State in the first half of Tuesday night’s game, but Devin Royal was clearly the best player on the floor for nearly all of it. The sophomore, who is not a starter but has played 22 minutes per game thus far, nearly had his first career double-double in 15 first-half minutes. He was 2-for-4 shooting, 6-for-8 from the free throw line, and grabbed eight rebounds. He has been the only Ohio State player that has looked capable of getting position in the post and drawing fouls this season, and he did it a ton against the Aces Tuesday night.

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Sean Stewart suffers head injury, heads back to locker room

With Ohio State leading 30-18 and 18:03 left in the game, Stewart corralled a missed three-pointer by Parrish and tried to go back up with it to score. He missed, and the ball bounced towards the Ohio State bench. Stewart turned around and chased after it, but was tripped up by an Evansville player and fell down, smacking the back of his head on the court as he hit the ground.

Stewart remained on the ground for several minutes, as his teammates stood back and watched. John Mobley’s hands immediately went to his head when Stewart hit the ground, and they stayed there until the trainers were able to help Stewart to the bench. The 6-foot-9 sophomore stumbled to the bench with several people guiding him, and then sat there with a towel over his head while athletic trainers asked him questions.

He was able to walk back to the locker room without any help at the under-16 timeout.

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Royal’s first career double-double, new career-high in rebounds

Four days after setting a new career-high with nine rebounds, Royal surpassed that with 14 minutes left in the game and then added to it, finishing with 12 rebounds. He also had 20 points, giving the sophomore his first career double-double. On a night when most of the Buckeyes struggled to see the ball into the basket, Royal went right at the rack time and time again, causing problems on the glass and proving any 1-on-1 assignment too tough for the Purple Aces.

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Colin White gets his biggest opportunity thus far

Freshman forward Colin White did not play in either the Texas or Texas A&M games, and played just seven minutes against Youngstown State last week. On Tuesday night he got a longer leash, playing 11 minutes and scoring six points on a pair of made three-pointers, while also grabbing four rebounds, dishing out one assist and blocking a shot. He got a big applause when he checked out of the game with just over five minutes remaining, and will probably push for more playing time moving forward after his performance Tuesday night.

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Final lines

Devin Royal: 20 points (7-9 FG, 6-8 FT), 12 rebounds, one steal (25 minutes)
Meechie Johnson: 13 points (5-8 FG, 3-6 3PT), two rebounds, two assists, three turnovers (24 minutes)
John Mobley Jr. : 11 points (3-8 FG, 4-5 FT, 1-4 3PT), three rebounds, one assist, one block (19 minutes)
Bruce Thornton: 8 points (2-8 FG, 4-6 FT, 0-4 3PT), seven assists, two rebounds (29 minutes)
Ivan Njegovan: 7 points (3-3 FG), two rebounds (4 minutes)
Colin White: 6 points (2-2 3PT), four rebounds, one assist, one block (11 minutes)

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What’s next?

Ohio State (3-1) gets two days off before the Campbell Camels (3-2) visit the Schottenstein Center for the second game of this four-game homestand. Campbell picked up a 20-point win over Navy on Sunday afternoon, and is currently No. 262 in KenPom. The Camels were picked to finish 13th in the 14-team Colonial Athletic Association.

The Buckeyes’ game against Campbell tips off at 6:00 p.m. ET on Friday night and will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.