When Jae'Sean Tate has the ball, odds are he's going left.
It's his natural hand so this makes sense. But even though this is well-known across the Big Ten — this year is Tate's third in college — it's still difficult to stop.
So when Tate caught a pass from JaQuan Lyle on Tuesday night going full speed with just about seven seconds to play, his team trailing Penn State by one point, you knew which way he was going to go when he drove to the basket. He was going left.
Yet the Nittany Lions still couldn't stop it. Tate drove hard toward the rim, spun back to toward his strong hand and flipped a shot up off the glass over two defenders that banked in with three seconds remaining on the clock. A halfcourt heave from Tony Carr came up short and Ohio State had knocked off Penn State, 71-70.
Coast-to-coast goes Jae'Sean Tate, for the @OhioStAthletics win. https://t.co/387HArmh6k
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) March 1, 2017
The win moved the Buckeyes to 17-13 overall and 7-10 in Big Ten play. It's a far cry from where many thought they would be at the beginning of this season, but to be honest, it could be much worse, too. After it lost three-straight games to fall to 15-13 overall and just 5-10 in the Big Ten, Ohio State easily could have folded. The Buckeyes welcomed Wisconsin to Value City Arena last week and the Badgers were playing for a shot to stay atop the league standings. There was a chance things could spiral out of control.
But Ohio State routed Wisconsin on that night to stop its skid and carried some of that momentum over into Tuesday's game. The Buckeyes led the entire way in the first half, but after Penn State rallied to open the second half, Ohio State once again battled back. Tate's game-winner came just seconds after Carr hit a deep 3-pointer to put the Nittany Lions ahead by one.
Tate scored 12 points and nine rebounds. Lyle added a team-high 17 points off the bench, Marc Loving finished with 14 points and Trevor Thompson scored 11. Andre Wesson hit a pair of big 3s and played great second-half defense to also spark the Buckeyes.
This isn't a "feel-good" win or one that's going to vault Ohio State back into the NCAA tournament discussion. The reality is it was a victory over a Penn State team that now sits 14-16 overall and 6-11 in the league.
What it did do, however, was put the Buckeyes one step closer to avoiding having to play on the opening day of the Big Ten tournament. A win over Indiana on Saturday and a Nebraska loss to either or Michigan — the Huskers will be underdogs in both — and Ohio State won't play in Washington D.C. until Thursday.
That's big news for a team that's going to need a deep Big Ten tournament run to even think about the NCAA tournament. The Buckeyes need momentum to make any sort of run and they need to head to Washington D.C. riding high. None of those things probably happen if Ohio State doesn't beat Penn State on Tuesday night.
The Buckeyes have Jae'Sean Tate's left hand to thank for that.
