The final horn sounded, and the party began.
Florida Atlantic, which entered Tuesday night’s game against Ohio State with just one victory on the season against a Division I opponent, was going to enjoy this one.
The Owls stunned the heavily favored Buckeyes on their home floor, 79-77 in overtime, after a Nick Rutherford game-winning floater in the lane with just one second remaining on the clock in the extra period. They celebrated like it was Game 7 of the NBA Finals, as players jumped on one another at midcourt. Down the hall, after the game ended, the sounds from the Florida Atlantic locker room were loud and clear.
And perhaps the Owls should have celebrated this way. After all, head coach Michael Curry declared it “one of the top two or three wins in the history of the program” following the game.
For Ohio State, however, it was quite the opposite.
“We go to Virginia and we play the best basketball we’ve played since I’ve been here and the past two games I feel like we’ve been reverting back, taking two steps back,” Buckeyes sophomore point guard JaQuan Lyle said. “Why? I don’t know, but we’ve got to fix it. Now.”
Ohio State talked all season about how there was an added emphasis this year on the importance of non-conference games. The Buckeyes dropped quite a few last season they shouldn’t have — against Texas-Arlington, Louisiana Tech and Memphis — and when it came NCAA tournament time, Ohio State knew those losses were a large reason why it was left on the outside looking in.
So far, through eight games this season prior to Tuesday night, the Buckeyes largely avoided these situations. There were a few hiccups — a six-point win over N.C. Central and an eight-point victory over Fairleigh Dickinson — but for the most part, Ohio State sidestepped any early-season trouble.
That ended on this night against the Owls in rather stunning fashion. The Buckeyes led by 11 points in the second half when a layup by Jae’Sean Tate gave them a 58-47 advantage with 9 minutes, 32 seconds to play, but then Florida Atlantic rattled off 14-straight points to take the lead.
From there, Ohio State had to fight just to get the game to overtime, and the Buckeyes never trailed in the extra period until Rutherford’s floater banked in with just one tick remaining.
That’s when one side partied, and the other side was left wondering what just happened.
“We’ve just gotta get these guys to understand that the game tonight is a great lesson of you have to swing the game to your teams,” Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said. “Tonight, for whatever reason, we couldn’t do it. We played on our heels the majority of the game and that’s something that we’ve got to be better at.”
This was more than just a loss for Ohio State. It was a giant step — a leap, actually — backward in a season that had been trending, for the most part, in the right direction. The Buckeyes entered Tuesday with a 7-1 record with their lone loss coming on the road at the hands of then-ranked No. 6 Virginia by two points.
It looked like Ohio State had some things going in the right direction. The Buckeyes even got junior forward Keita Bates-Diop back for this game against Florida Atlantic, too. Bates-Diop missed the last five games with an ankle sprain and his return was supposed to give Ohio State a boost. He played 20 minutes and scored 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting off the bench, but it wasn’t enough for the Buckeyes. Not even close.
“I just feel like when we do bring the energy we’re a completely different team than when we don’t,” Tate said. “As of right now, we haven’t brought that energy as much as we did against Virginia and right now, we’ve just got to find a way to come out every game and play like we did against Virginia.
“This one hurts, but it’s a long season.”
Ohio State doesn’t have much time to sulk over this loss, as bad as it was. And let’s not kid ourselves here, this was a really bad loss for the Buckeyes.
The next two opponents for Ohio State are Connecticut on Saturday and No. 2-ranked UCLA a week after that matchup with the Huskies.
“Prepare for UConn on Saturday,” Lyle said when asked what Matta’s message was after Tuesday’s loss. “That’s all we’ve gotta do. Bottom line.”
“We play again Saturday and we’ve gotta find ways to get better,” Matta added. “We came out of last week’s game and honed in on what we felt we didn’t do well there and we’ve just gotta keep finding ways.”
“You get knocked down, you’ve gotta get back up and you’ve gotta fight again Saturday at 6 o’clock.”
