Duke used a late first-half run to gain a 39-29 lead at intermission and never relinquished it until the final buzzer sounded as Ohio State fell 81-72 on Wednesday night in an ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchup. It was a tough game for the Buckeyes, but one where they had their chances to win. Here are five things we learned during OSU’s loss to the Blue Devils.
Turnovers Ohio State's their chances for an upset
It’s hard to go into a tough road environment and pull off a win — you can argue that Cameron Indoor Stadium is more than that. When you commit 16 turnovers, it makes the job that much more difficult. The Buckeyes had some bad turnovers that led to some easy Duke buckets. If the turnover number was closer to 10, this game very well could have had a different outcome.
Duke’s bench scoring made a huge difference
Freshman Brice Sensabaugh came into this game averaging almost 16 points and four rebounds. He finished the game with more fouls than points, having fouled out with just four points and one rebound. The three other non-starting Buckeyes that played against the Blue Devils totaled 5 points. Duke’s bench, on the other hand, had 26 points and 12 rebounds. The Blue Devils’ depth showed and helped them win this close game.
Can’t afford for Key to be hurt long term
Ohio State center Zed Key came out late in the game favoring his shoulder. If my lip reading was correct, as he came back from the tunnel, he said he was fine. Let’s hope that is the case because if there is one player that the Buckeyes can ill afford to lose, it’s him. Key was fantastic, scoring 21 points along with 8 rebounds and 3 blocks, all that while playing with foul trouble for the majority of the game.
The good news is that he came back into the game after the scare and finished without looking like there was anything too serious going on, so that’s a very, very good thing.
Three point shooting was bad
When you play a team the caliber of Duke, you have to do certain things in order to defeat it, and one of those things is shooting the three well. The Buckeyes went 3-of-13 beyond the arc, good for 23.1%. Sean McNeil took the majority of those shots, making just 2-of-7, many of them looked like rushed attempts. If the Buckeyes hit 33% of these attempts, they would have made this a much closer affair.
Duke is better than its current ranking
This is a good sign for the Buckeyes, even with a loss. Duke had a clear height advantage, but OSU only had three fewer rebounds (34-31). The home team shot 38.5% from three and won the turnover battle which helped propel it to a win. I could see this Duke team getting to the Elite 8, making their current ranking of 17 much lower than it would seem. The Buckeyes hopefully will learn from this game and come out the other side better for it.
