PORTLAND, Ore. — As the final horn sounded Saturday and Ohio State’s season came to an end following a 73-58 loss to Arizona in the third round of the NCAA tournament, players from each team went through the post-game handshake line and after Buckeyes senior forward Sam Thompson made his trip through he walked off the floor first and headed toward the locker room. Alone.
Thompson untucked his Ohio State jersey for the final time in his career as he headed into the tunnel. Fellow seniors Amir Williams, Trey McDonald and Shannon Scott soon followed. Their season, and careers, were over.
Inside the Buckeyes’ locker room after the game it was quiet, as expected. Ohio State was obviously disappointed with its season being over, but it was more the fact that the 10th-seeded Buckeyes hung right with the second-seeded Wildcats for a long portion of the game.
“They’re just a great team and they outplayed us,” Scott said. “We feel like we did a great job in the first half, but they had a lot of answers in the second half.”
To the surprise of many, Ohio State took control of the game in the opening half. The Buckeyes’ 2-3 zone defense stifled Arizona as it was limited to just 10 for 31 from the field. Ohio State held a slight lead for the majority of the first half, but trailed 26-25 at halftime. All of this came, too, with superstar D’Angelo Russell connecting on just 2 of his 11 first-half shot attempts.
Before the second half started, you figured at some point the Wildcats would get things going offensively. They were too talented of a team not to do so and eventually they would figure out Ohio State’s zone. You also figured Russell would get going. He hadn’t been slowed for an entire game in quite some time.
But only one of those things happened. Arizona eventually got going — it scored 47 second-half points thanks in large part to Gabe York’s four 3-pointers and 16 points in the final 20 minutes and T.J. McConnell’s steady play at the point — and Russell never got started.
“I’m proud of the whole team, the coaching staff, everybody. I love these guys, man. I love the seniors and I love this team. I’ll never forget them.”– Jae'Sean Tate
Ohio State’s superstar finished with just nine points (his second-lowest output of the season) on 3-of-19 shooting. The Wildcats rotated McConnell and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson on him throughout the game and really made things difficult for the talented guard.
“They played great D on a few of them, but a lot of them were great shots and I just missed,” Russell said. “But I credit their defense, too.”
Like Thompson, Scott, McDonald and Williams, Saturday’s loss to the Wildcats was probably Russell’s final game for the Buckeyes, as well. He’s a projected top-five pick in the upcoming NBA Draft should he choose to declare, and opted to say “no comment” on the situation when asked about it following the game.
He affected the game in many other ways — he had seven rebounds and six assists — but his poorest shooting effort of the season couldn’t have come at a worse time for Ohio State.
“I thought he had some great looks at the basket,” Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said. “Unfortunately, it was kind of one of those days for him in terms of the shots not going down.”
The Buckeyes were going to need Russell to be great in order to have any shot at beating Arizona, a team Matta said was “absolutely” a contender to win the national title. It was simply a case where throughout the course of the game, the Wildcats just proved they were the better team.
Still, Ohio State felt like it had a shot.
“I feel like we had it in our hands,” Russell said. “I feel like we were right there and just, the little plays, the second-chance shots, the extra rebounds and all that, it added up.”
It was an up-and-down season for the Buckeyes and a third-round exit was probably fitting for how the year went. Ohio State was littered with inconsistency and it was too reliant on Russell to bail it out.
Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, he couldn’t come through one more time against Arizona.
“I’m proud of the whole team, the coaching staff, everybody. I love these guys, man,” freshman forward Jae’Sean Tate said. “I love the seniors and I love this team. I’ll never forget them.”
