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Value City Arena was empty about three hours before Sunday’s game with No. 2 Purdue save for a specific section of the court.
From near midcourt toward the tunnel leading into the area housing the visitors’ locker room, roughly two dozen scarlet-clad ushers and arena personnel went over their game plan for the afternoon. They were ready, should a reeling Ohio State team knock off Big Ten-leading Purdue, to get Zach Edey and his teammates off the court with as little incident as possible.
Sunday afternoon, practice made perfect. Four days after athletic director Gene Smith fired coach Chris Holtmann, interim coach Jake Diebler and the Buckeyes notched their most impressive win of the season by taking down the Boilermakers 73-69 inside an arena that was nearly packed.
The win is Ohio State’s first against a top-five team since it beat No. 1 Duke on Nov. 30, 2021. The Buckeyes had lost three straight such games since then, each of them to Purdue.
Ohio State (15-11, 5-10 Big Ten) led for the final 22:28 against Purdue (23-3, 12-3). The Buckeyes had lost nine of their past 11 games while Purdue boasted the nation’s fifth-longest active win streak at nine.
Purdue tied it at 65-all on a Lance Jones 3-pointer with 1:39 left, but Jamison Battle reclaimed the lead on a jumper in the paint and after Zed Key stripped Edey, Battle drew a foul and hit two free throws with 34.1 seconds left to extend his streak without misses to 36.
That four-point lead was enough. Ohio State outscored Purdue 22-7 in points off turnovers as Key grabbed a career-high five steals.
As the final horn sounded, the fans did storm the court. They bounced to “Seven Nation Army” and sang out “Sweet Caroline,” with fans yelling at Diebler, “That’s my coach!” as he made his way to the locker room with a smile on his face.
“He was excited, man,” guard Bruce Thornton said of Diebler. “His hands were shaking at the first media timeout.”
The Buckeyes pulled out all the stops. Instead of throwing out T-shirts to “the loudest fans” in the arena, as is tradition, Ohio State put program legend Aaron Craft on the scoreboard, and he pumped up the crowd just before tipoff. During a first-half timeout, 2022 first-round NBA pick Malaki Branham was recognized, and he gave Diebler a hug before heading into the stands.
The capper came during the final media timeout of the half, with Purdue leading 28-25. As “One Shining Moment” played over the speakers, Ohio State tacitly recognized the 1998-99 team whose Final Four appearance was vacated due to NCAA violations. The loudest applause at the end came for Scoonie Penn, who upon his arrival at the arena told The Dispatch that Ohio State would win Sunday.
At least the loudest applause until Battle got going as the Buckeyes took control during the second half. After having gone 2 for 13 from 3 in his past three games, the Minnesota graduate transfer who went to Ohio State to reach the NCAA Tournament took a pass out of the post from Evan Mahaffey to hit a 3 for a 44-38 lead.
Mahaffey had tipped the ball away from Edey, to the crowd’s delight, and there was more to come. Edey was stripped on the next possession and failed to secure the loose ball, leading to a runout capped by a Battle 3-pointer as the roar continued to build. It grew louder still when Key stripped Edey and finally reached a crescendo when Battle buried a 3 from the left wing.
Three shots. Sixty-one seconds. A 12-point Ohio State lead. The Buckeyes were rolling, and although Purdue kept fighting, so did Ohio State.
Thornton led the Buckeyes with 22 points.
When Austin Parks, who had played in just one game since the Dec. 21 blowout against New Orleans, scored with 3:07 left in the first half, it marked his first career field goal as well as the first Ohio State lead of the afternoon. It also continued a late-half run from the Buckeyes, who trailed 28-21 when Edey dished an offensive rebound to Mason Gillis for a floater in the paint with 5:51 left in the half.
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Key got it started when, seemingly stuck on the left baseline, he managed to spin free and hit a floater. Thornton followed on the next possession by drawing a foul on Edey, sending him to the bench for the remainder of the half with two fouls and 4:30 remaining. Thornton hit the free throws, and what would become a 14-2 run to close the half was underway.
The final points came from freshman Devin Royal, who grabbed a Key miss, spun and put it back to set the halftime score at 35-30. It could’ve been more, as Ohio State continually extended the final possession of the half when Roddy Gayle Jr. drew a foul while hustling for an offensive rebound and Scotty Middleton tipped an offensive rebound out for one final look, but when the ball got back to the freshman he airballed a 3-pointer from the left corner.
The run belied the start of the game, when Purdue scored the first eight points before Thornton got the Buckeyes on the board with a three-point play with 17:31 left. At the half, Edey had only 6 points and five rebounds.
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