COLUMBUS, Ohio — The crowd inside Value City Arena erupted, and rightfully so.
Ohio State’s Micah Parrish had just stolen the ball thanks to an errant Trey Galloway pass, and Indiana men’s basketball’s fifth-year senior guard had no choice but to watch a fellow fifth-year senior guard slam the ball home.
The dunk, while important in rejuvenating the Buckeye fans, most notably brought Indiana’s lead down to 4 with exactly three minutes remaining in the game. And considering the advantage had been 9 points only 57 seconds before, a collapse seemed imminent for the Hoosiers.
In a sense, it did come.
A 3-pointer from Buckeye freshman guard John Mobley Jr. tied the game at 71 with 38 seconds left in the game. Indiana had three close attempts at the rim on the ensuing possession, but none of them rippled the net. On the other end, Ohio State’s attempt at stealing the victory came up short, sending the game to overtime.
As momentum sided almost completely with the Buckeyes, the Hoosiers had the perfect opportunity to surrender. A Quad 1 victory was there for the taking, but in a hostile environment against the 29th ranked team in the NCAA NET Rankings, a tight loss is better than a 25-point thumping like against Iowa and Illinois.
The Hoosiers did anything but surrender. They responded to Ohio State’s first bucket to take the lead at 74-73 with two minutes and 19 seconds remaining. Then, when Buckeye junior guard Bruce Thornton converted an and-one opportunity to take the 76-74, up stepped senior Luke Goode, who drilled a 3-pointer with just over a minute remaining to take the lead.
Ultimately, Goode’s triple was the final basket of the contest, securing Indiana the 77-76 Quad 1 win Friday night in Columbus.
“One of the biggest trends in our losses this season is that we get down two, three, four possessions and we essentially quit in a sense, and we end up being down 30 like that,” Goode said postgame. “We came together and said, ‘You know what, let’s change the script and go out and get a win.’”
Winning in the Big Ten is never easy, especially on the road, and Indiana didn’t make it any easier for itself Friday. The largest first half deficit extended to just 7 points, and the Ohio State advantage at halftime was only 6, but the Hoosiers only led for two minutes and 55 seconds.
A more concerted second half performance, powered by Goode, brought Indiana more control in the game, highlighted by a 10-point lead with just under six minutes to go. But as soon as the control was there, it vanished in a flash.
Against better opposition, that’s not acceptable. It happened against Penn State on Jan. 5, but the Hoosiers had established a large enough lead to survive the comeback. Versus Iowa on Jan. 11, a late run in the first half began Indiana’s demise. In the Illinois contest Tuesday, the Fighting Illini’s 60 points in the opening 20 minutes gave the Hoosiers no hope in the second half, even with the scoring run they managed.
While it may not appear Penn State or Iowa are better teams than Ohio State, they certainly aren’t worse. Entering Friday, Ohio State ranked higher in the NET than Penn State and Iowa’s 48th and 49th place rankings, respectively. However, the Buckeyes held a 10-7 (2-4 Big Ten) record, while the Nittany Lions sat 12-6 (2-5 Big Ten) and the Hawkeyes 12-6 (3-4 Big Ten).
Largely propped up by a victory over No. 8 University of Kentucky and three ranked losses by a combined score of 11 in its previous four games, Ohio State is not 19 or 20 spots better than Penn State or Iowa. So, while the victory over the Buckeyes is great for building a resume, fans must temper their expectations for Indiana.
But regardless, a win is a win. And for a squad that had suffered back-to-back 25-point embarrassments, the Hoosiers are not disappointed.
“I thought tonight, considering where we’ve been the last two games, they fought their asses off to help us win this basketball game,” Indiana head coach Mike Woodson said. “It was a total team effort, man.”
In certain games, shots aren’t going to always fall. Turnovers are inevitable. Some rebounds may not bounce the right way.
The one thing any team can control is effort, and Indiana showed almost none of it in the past two games.
Against Ohio State, it was different — and ultimately, the effort is what brought the Hoosiers the victory.
The team from two games ago may not have made the necessary plays to defend Ohio State’s final shot in regulation. The team from a game ago would likely not have been in the contest at all following the first half deficit.
However, the Hoosiers prevailed, providing a brief outlook at what could have been in those two games — and what could still be in the next 12.
“I tip my hat to our team because they could’ve laid down, and they didn’t,” Woodson said. “They came into Ohio and got a win.”
Follow reporters Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) and Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa) and columnist Mateo Fuentes-Rohwer (@mateo_frohwer) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball season.
