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OSU upsets No. 8 Iowa
Big plays carry
Buckeyes late
Associated Press
COLUMBUS
A handful of big plays erased an afternoon of mistakes as Ohio State rallied to stun No. 8 Iowa 68-64 on Sunday.
Marc Loving, Kam Williams and Keita Bates-Diop all scored in double figures for the Buckeyes, and all three had big plays down the stretch as they finished the game on a 12-2 run.
“To put it in perspective, this was a great win because, a, we won the game, but b, how we had to win it,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. “Being down and fighting and scraping and clawing. We came together. Timeouts got electric. The huddles on the floor were electric.”
He was especially encouraged because the Buckeyes won for the first time after losing spiritual leader Jae’Sean Tate to a season-ending shoulder injury. They were humbled 81-62 by No. 6 Michigan State on the same floor five days earlier in their first game without Tate.
“That (energy is) something a guy like Jae’Sean Tate usually brought to the table,” Matta said, adding the team connected with Tate via FaceTime from the locker room after the game.
“I don’t think he’ll remember tomorrow but we did do it,” Matta said.
Multiple Buckeyes were indispensable down the stretch.
Loving hit both ends of a 1-and-1 with less than 2 seconds to go to finish with 25 points and ice the game.
Bates-Diop added 19 points and preserved a two-point lead for Ohio State (19-11, 11-6 Big Ten) by blocking Mike Gesell’s layup with under 5 seconds to go.
Williams gave the Buckeyes a 63-62 lead with a jumper with 2:04 left after Iowa led for most of the second half.
The last of his 11 points came on a 3-pointer a little over a minute later to stretch Ohio State’s lead to four.
The Buckeyes won despite committing 15 turnovers — all in the first 25 minutes of the game.
Gesell and Jarrod Uthoff led Iowa (20-8, 11-5) with 16 points apiece.
“Everything went wrong,” said Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, who spoke for less than two minutes after the game. “We didn’t execute, we didn’t defend, we didn’t rebound.”