Ohio State’s NCAA Tournament run ended on its home court.
The Buckeyes fell to Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, falling 75-63 to the seventh-seeded Blue Devils on Sunday at the Schottenstein Center.
Ohio State led by as many as 16 points in the first half but lost its lead by the end of the third quarter and was unable to make enough plays in the fourth quarter to pull out a win. The Buckeyes didn’t make a single 3-pointer until the final 12 seconds of the game while they were outrebounded 38-20.
“Extremely frustrating,” Ohio State guard Rikki Harris said when asked about shots not falling in Sunday’s game, “but that’s not what lost us this game. We got killed on the boards.”
| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | FINAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #7 DUKE | 10 | 22 | 19 | 24 | 75 |
| #2 OHIO STATE | 20 | 16 | 14 | 13 | 63 |
Reigan Richardson carried Duke to victory with 28 points while Cotie McMahon scored 27 points for the Buckeyes in defeat.
The Buckeyes raced out to a double-digit lead early on the strength of their defense as Ohio State scored 20 of the game’s first 28 points. Duke shot just 2-of-11 from the field in the first quarter while McMahon scored eight first-quarter points and Celeste Taylor snagged three first-quarter steals.
Ohio State took its biggest lead of the game midway through the second quarter, scoring 10 of the quarter’s first 14 points to pull ahead 30-14.
“We started out the game, we rebounded really well, our energy was good, our discipline was good blocking out, and then it just kind of eroded over the course of the game,” Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said postgame. “That really killed us.”
After a stretch of more than 11 minutes in which Duke did not make a single field goal, Richardson and Ashlon Jackson began to heat up, combining for 16 points in a five-minute span. The Blue Devils finished the first half on an 18-6 run, scoring the final nine points of the second quarter to cut Ohio State’s halftime lead to four points, 36-32.
| DUKE | STAT | OHIO STATE |
|---|---|---|
| 75 | POINTS | 63 |
| 24-61 (51.1%) | FGM-FGA (PCT.) | 22-54 (40.7%) |
| 5-13 (38.5%) | 3PM-3PA (PCT.) | 1-11 (9.1%) |
| 24-29 (82.8%) | FTM-FTA (PCT.) | 18-27 (66.7%) |
| 16 | TURNOVERS | 9 |
| 38 | TOTAL REBOUNDS | 20 |
| 8 | OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS | 5 |
| 30 | DEFENSIVE REBOUNDS | 15 |
| 14 | BENCH POINTS | 6 |
| 5 | BLOCKS | 0 |
| 7 | STEALS | 7 |
| 13 | ASSISTS | 13 |
McMahon, who led all first-half scorers with 14 points, scored six of the first 10 points of the second quarter. But Duke went on a 13-5 run from there to take its first lead of the game, 49-47, with 1:22 to play in the third quarter.
Ohio State trailed by one entering the fourth quarter but retook the lead on a pair of McMahon free throws. Duke pulled back ahead by two on a three-point play by Kennedy Brown. McMahon tied the game up with a long two, but Duke retook the lead again when Delaney Thomas hit a pair of free throws after Taylor fouled out of the game with 6:38 to play. Taylor Thierry knotted the score at 56-all with a layup on the other end.
A free throw by Harris briefly put Ohio State ahead by one, but a subsequent three by Richardson put Duke back in front by two. Richardson scored again on Duke’s next two possessions to make it a six-point game.
Ohio State would never regain the lead from there. After a Thierry jumper cut Duke’s lead to four, the Buckeyes failed to score on each of their next three possessions, allowing Duke to pull out to a nine-point lead with just one minute to play.
The Buckeyes’ season ended with a 26-6 record with three losses in their final four games of the year.
“We had a couple of clunker games here down the stretch, and that's just not how you want to do it, obviously,” McGuff said. “You want to walk off the court on that last one saying, ‘Man, we were right there. We gave it everything we had.’ And you can't really say that that was the case today.”
