CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said he wanted to see his guys fight. Trevor Thompson was more than happy to oblige.
Ohio State’s sophomore center was vital in the Buckeyes’ 68-63 win at Illinois on Thursday night. Thompson scored a team-high 16 points on 7-of-7 shooting and grabbed five rebounds to help Ohio State avoid a disastrous collapse against the Illini.
“I thought Trevor was tremendous,” Matta said. “I thought he finished around the basket and he really moved off the basketball, the penetration.”
Thompson’s performance was far from a certainty going into Thursday’s game, though.
It was unclear because prior to Ohio State’s game Monday against Penn State, both Thompson and JaQuan Lyle were taken out of the starting lineup and moved into reserve roles. And that’s precisely why Matta said he wanted to see how they would respond.
But Thompson, a transfer from Virginia Tech in his first season playing for the Buckeyes, didn’t take Matta’s decision personally. Instead, he embraced the newfound role.
“[Coach Matta] knows that I’m mature and he knows that I can handle certain situations,” Thompson said. “I know I’m mature so I’m not going to really feel sorry for myself or sulk. I just have to go out and do what the coaches ask me to do and just play hard.”
That’s exactly what happened, too, as Thompson starred for Ohio State on Thursday night.
The Buckeyes fell behind early, trailing by as many as 11 in the early stages, but battled back to take a five-point lead into halftime. Ohio State then surged ahead early in the second half before a collapse over the final six-plus minutes nearly cost it the game. The Buckeyes then pulled out the narrow win in overtime.
Thompson was crucial the whole way, but 10 of his 16 points came in the second half and overtime. He was also one of five Ohio State players to record at least five rebounds in the game as the Buckeyes absolutely pounded Illinois on the glass by a 51-34 margin.
“I saw a different side of Trevor, a more mature side of Trevor,” sophomore wing Keita Bates-Diop said. “He came off the bench and that’s hard to go from starting to coming off the bench. The way he played was just big for us and if we can get that off the bench consistently that would be huge.”
And if Thompson coming off the bench is going to be the way Matta chooses to go moving forward — and it appears, for now, it will be — games like Thursday’s would certainly be welcomed by Ohio State.
“I know I can play. I know I can help this team win games,” Thompson said. “My biggest thing was just be more aggressive; that’s what I wanted to do. If it was scoring or just rebounding, blocking shots, my main objective was to be aggressive and my teammates found me.”
