Lighty touch: Late foul shots cinch OSU’s win over BGSU

The Falcons made the Buckeyes work up to the end for the 61-57 win.

COLUMBUS (AP) — David Lighty hit two clinching foul shots with 6.4 seconds left to lead Ohio State past Bowling Green 61-57 on Monday night.

The Buckeyes (2-0) led by as many as 13 points with just under 15 minutes left but Bowling Green (3-2) roared back to take a 48-46 lead on Nate Miller’s half-hook at the 6:05 mark.

After the teams traded the lead, the Buckeyes grabbed it for good on Dallas Lauderdale’s dunk leading to a three-point play with 5:24 remaining.

Brian Moten’s 3-pointer with 11 seconds left cut the lead to 59-57, but Lighty added the two late free throws.

Moten had 16 points and Darryl Clements 13 for the Falcons. Jon Diebler led Ohio State with 17 points with Evan Turner adding 12.

The Buckeyes led 30-24 at the half, but the teams were almost evenly balanced.

Ohio State rode an early 10-0 run to overcome an 8-5 deficit — Diebler scoring the final six points in the spurt.

The Falcons went scoreless for almost 41‚Ñ2 minutes, missing five shots in a row from the field bookended by turnovers.

William Buford, Ohio’s reigning Mr. Basketball, hit a 10-foot jumper in traffic to put the Buckeyes ahead 38-25 with 16:40 left.

But the Falcons fought back with a 21-8 rally to tie the game on Clements’ two free throws with 6:50 remaining. After Miller’s shot gave them a short-lived lead, Lauderdale lost a pass and then regained possession, dunking and hitting the accompanying free throw for a 52-50 lead.

Diebler then hit a 3-pointer from the left wing before Lighty rebounded a missed 3 and powered it back in to make it 57-50 with 3:20 left.

The Buckeyes turned the ball over on successive possessions, and the Falcons scored after each one, first on Clements’ pull-up jumper and then on Joe Jakubowski’s driving layup with 1:21 left that cut the lead to 57-54.

After an Ohio State miss late in the shot clock, Jakubowski had a good look on a 3 with 32 seconds left that missed.

First Turner and then Lighty each hit two free throws in the waning seconds to preserve the lead.