Chris Holtmann gave it some thought. He had an understanding that whatever lineup decisions he made late in the second half of the Thursday night matchup between Ohio State and Iowa could swing the result one way or the other.
The fourth-year head coach gave some consideration to keeping Justin Ahrens on the bench with a little more than five minutes to go in a top-10 showdown. After all, when the third-year from Versailles doesn’t hit outside jumpers, his impact gets minimized. At that point, Ahrens had missed all four of his 3-point attempts, a rarity for somebody who entered the night making half of his triples on the season.
Still, despite those four misses, Holtmann reinserted Ahrens into the game with Ohio State up by three after keeping him on the bench for more than 10 minutes.
“At the end of the day, it was the fact that I do really believe in Justin,” Holtmann said.
As has become a theme for this team, Ahrens responded when called upon and gave the Buckeyes exactly what they needed.
He knocked down his first 3-pointer of the night with 3:55 left, responded to a subsequent Jack Nunge triple with another three 21 seconds later, then put Ohio State up by seven with a third long-range bomb with 2:39 left. Those three shots secured an 89-85 road win.
“Justin struggled making shots early, right? He was feeling that a little bit,” Holtmann said. “But he's such a confident kid. But he came in hunting. Give him credit. He came in hunting. He came in really confident. He came in hunting shots. (Assistant coach) Ryan Pedon put him in great positions a couple times with a couple of his calls from the bench.”
Every single contribution made by the 11 guys – yes, 11 – who regularly get minutes in Holtmann’s rotation allowed the Buckeyes to pull out the victory. They needed them all.
This Ohio State team doesn’t have a star upon which everything is built such as Iowa’s Luka Garza, the National Player of the Year frontrunner who tied his season-low of 16 points on 13 shot attempts on Thursday. It doesn’t have one or two players who carry the vast majority of the load. Sure, the Buckeyes put a lot on E.J. Liddell, Duane Washington Jr. and Justice Sueing to perform at a high level on a night-in, night-out basis. But they’re built in a way that requires widespread contributions. They need guys to play within themselves and their roles, and to beat the nation’s best teams, they have to get a bit out of just about all of them.
As evidenced by securing another road win against a ranked opponent – this time without anybody scoring more than 16 points in a game in which the team dropped 89 points – that’s exactly what’s happening.
“For us, we're all bought in,” Washington said. “We're in a really good spot here. We're going to keep this energy going. We're going to shock all the guys who thought we were going to be whatever we were (projected) in the Big Ten. We're going to just keep doing what we're doing every single day, get better, and that's been our approach. Trusting the process has definitely been in our favor, and we're going to keep doing it the same way.”
Washington, the junior guard who’s second on the team in scoring, entered the day having made 5-of-30 shots in the previous three games. Ohio State survived each of those outings, winning them all despite the starting guard’s shooting struggles. But Thursday would have been different. The Buckeyes would have lost if he remained cold.
To Washington’s credit, when they needed him more than ever as the offense went flat with a near-six-minute dry spell between made field goals that led to an 11-point deficit with 14:29 remaining, he was right there. Washington splashed back-to-back threes, and suddenly a game that felt like it might slip away was once again nearly evened up.
The poise at that moment by his team, Holtmann said, was maybe the most important part of the victory.
“I want (Washington) shooting all them shots,” Kyle Young said. “Anytime he's open, we have the utmost confidence he's going to make those shots. At that point in the game, it was huge. Two of the biggest shots in the game.”
Liddell took it to Iowa for 16 points, getting to the foul line six times in the second half and knocking down five free throws. He hit shots from all over, making a 3, several mid-range jumpers and doing work down low. Washington also put up 16 points, and so did Kyle Young, who did so on just six shot attempts. The senior power forward made both of his 3-point attempts and all four of his free throws.
Sueing recorded his second double-double in the past three games with 12 points and 11 boards, including four offensive rebounds, while adding five assists.
CJ Walker managed nine assists compared to only one turnover. Gene Brown banked in a 3-pointer and grabbed an offensive rebound that led to a Washington layup five seconds later. Meechie Johnson stepped into a pair of threes late in the first half, making both.
Seth Towns and Musa Jallow saw minutes, too, though neither of them scored against the Hawkeyes.
“All those contributions were huge today,” Washington said.
Zed Key busted his you-know-what to put up eight points and snag seven boards in 14 minutes, going mano-a-mano as a true freshman against Garza, college basketball’s most productive center.
“He battled. He really did battle,” Holtmann said. “He's shown that all year. He's a big kid, right? He's 260. He's strong and he's naturally physical and he has long arms. So I thought he was able to just disrupt enough of his shots, even when he had shots around the rim. I thought his length bothered him just enough.”
This result might be different if even one of those players’ contributions didn’t exist. The Buckeyes needed a little something from everyone, had a nearly full roster of players respond by making key plays and left town with a seventh win in the past eight games.
When they needed offense, they got it, putting up 89 points with 20 assists compared to six turnovers while going blow-for-blow with one of the most efficient point-scoring units in modern history. When they needed defense, they buckled down and allowed only five made shots from the field in the last 10 minutes. When they needed something, they got it from someone, because that’s just the type of team Ohio State is this season.
“I'm sure that was a fun game to watch. It was a fun game to be a part of,” Holtmann said. “Not as much when we were down 11. But we have an incredibly resilient bunch – as much as any group I've ever coached.”
