The Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team is back in action as the season tipped off tonight against the BYU Cougars at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. After leading at halftime, the Buckeyes (0-1) fell to the Cougars (1-0), 94-83.
The Buckeyes got the scoring started from Amare Bynum with a three-pointer. Bynum had the first five points for Ohio State, and after a couple more baskets, the Buckeyes had a 13-5 lead at the first media timeout.
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The Buckeyes pushed the lead all the way out to 22-11 after a Josh Ojianwuna basket on an assist from John Mobley. The Buckeyes and Cougars answered each other with baskets back and forth, and then BYU went on a run to cut the halftime lead to 37-34 for Ohio State after a Justin Pippen three-pointer.
At halftime, the usual suspects led the Buckeyes, with Bynum, Mobley, and Pippen all recording eight points. For BYU, Rob Wright led the way with 14 of the 34 points, while Tyler Betsey added eight points. The two five-star freshmen, Anthony Thompson for Ohio State and Bruce Branch III, recorded two combined points in the opening 20 minutes and were 1-for-9 from the field.
BYU came out and immediately took the lead, going on a 7-0 run to start the half and take a 41-37 lead. Jelavic made a bucket to cut the BYU lead to two points, but a three from Rob Wright made the score 44-39 again.
Pippen picked up his third foul on an and-one layup by Wright and had to take a seat for Curtis Givens. The ensuing free throw gave Wright 20 points with 16 minutes left in the game. Another bucket and foul gave BYU a 50-43 lead.
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Bynum knocked down a three-pointer and a transition dunk, and BYU led 50-48 at the under-16 media timeout. However, right before the timeout, Bynum slipped and rolled his ankle. He went to the locker room with 15 minutes left in the game. He came back quickly and reentered the game with 13 minutes left as Pippen tied the game at 52.
After the Buckeyes and Cougars traded baskets back and forth to tie the game at 59, BYU went on a 13-2 run to take a 72-61 lead with 7:13 left in the game.
With five minutes remaining in the game, Mobley picked up two fouls on consecutive defensive possessions and fouled out of the game. Anthony Thompson got his first points of the season from the free-throw line with four minutes left. BYU led 77-69 at the under-4 media timeout.
BYU took an 84-76 lead after a Collin Chandler dunk, and Pippen fouled out. BYU ended up winning by a final score of 94-83, with Rob Wright leading the way with 33 points. Bynum led Ohio State with 20 points, and Mobley added 14. Andrija Jelavic added 13 points, all in the second half.
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The Buckeyes are back in action Friday night as they host Youngstown State at 6:30 on Big Ten Network Plus.
Here are three takeaways from the Buckeyes' opening loss against BYU.
The Buckeyes were flexible early with the rotations
In the first half, 11 players recorded playing time in the first six minutes of the game. Bynum, Mobley, and Pippen all played 14 minutes in the first half, but the other eight guys shared the floor, and all played more than five minutes. It is early in the season, and it is clear that the Buckeyes' coaching staff and Jake Diebler are working through exactly how they want the rotations to go.
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With a couple of games coming up that will likely get out of hand, the staff will play with the rotations even more and see what they have with so many new faces.
Amare Bynum and John Mobley are the guys
There has been a lot of discussion this offseason about the freshman Thompson and LJ Smith and the added depth on the bench, but this game showed that John Mobley and Amare Bynum are still the guys who will take this team to the heights they want to go.
They will need the bench to be better than last year as well, but Mobley and Bynum are the stars of the team, and both have All-Conference potential.
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This is a team with no identity yet
There were always going to be growing pains early in the season, as life without Bruce Thornton begins this season, but it was very clear, especially late in the game, that Thornton is no longer on this team. Once Mobley fouled out, they struggled to find a go-to guy down the stretch, and the offense went stagnant at times.
They have time to figure this out, and it is hard to make that transition when you lose a four-year starting point guard, but it was evident in this game that BYU had Rob Wright and Ohio State didn't have Bruce Thornton.
