Shannon Scott had a momentary thought of "Here we go again."
In a season that has been filled with slow starts for Ohio State, its senior point guard was worried Sunday's game against No. 23 Indiana was going to head down the same path many previous contests had gone.
“For some reason everybody starts off hot on us, they’re never missing shots," Scott said. "I think the first four minutes they shot 100 percent."
It actually took 6 minutes, 39 seconds of game action for the Hoosiers to miss their first shot, but you get the point. Indiana jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead and was ahead 18-12 after making its first eight attempts before James Blackmon Jr. missed the first shot of the game for the Hoosiers.
From that point forward, though, it was all Buckeyes. They went on a 13-1 run as Indiana was held without a field goal for six minutes and cruised to a comfortable 82-70 win in front of 17,322 fans at the Schottenstein Center.
"Very proud of our guys," Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said. "With the way Indiana started the game, I don’t know if they were going to miss. We got down and we stayed the course, kept fighting, kept defending. Very proud of how our guys came together out there and did the job to win the game."
It was important for Ohio State not to fall victim to another sluggish start. But perhaps even more vital for the Buckeyes was getting their first win over a quality opponent.
For a team that currently sits on the NCAA tournament bubble, the win over the Hoosiers could be looked back at as a key turning point in the season. It was the first time all season Ohio State defeated a team ranked in the RPI Top 50. It has another shot to earn one Thursday when it hosts 13th-ranked Maryland.
“I think we are starting to find our roles, hit our strides as coach would say," said freshman forward Jae'Sean Tate, who finished with a career-high 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting and also had six rebounds. "We were up and down throughout the season and I think these two wins in a row — that’s all we kept talking about is how important it was to just get two wins in a row.”
Because of Indiana's lack of size, the Buckeyes went to their small-ball lineup for really the first time all season. Starting center Anthony Lee played just two minutes, Trey McDonald played four minutes and Amir Williams did not see any game action.
Instead, the Buckeyes fed off of the energy of two of their true freshmen: Tate and D'Angelo Russell.
Russell was once again fantastic for Ohio State as he scored a team-high 22 points, while also dishing out 10 assists and grabbing six rebounds. Marc Loving scored 12 off the bench for the Buckeyes, while Shannon Scott added 10 — all of which came in the second half.
“We shot 62 percent from the field so I give credit to all my teammates, they were making shots and finishing," Russell said. "I was just finding them so it made my job easier."
It may have looked easy, but it certainly wasn't. Ohio State doesn't seem to make anything easy this season.
But against the Hoosiers they found a way to get it done and finally picked up that elusive quality win in the process.
"I think in terms of the evolution of this team, I want to see us do it again. I want to see us play with that type of emotion, that type of energy, that type of togetherness," Matta said. "As I've told our guys, and I always say this, tryouts are over. It's time to do your job and do your role. Each game I think we’re going to have to piece together different parts of the puzzle."
