Kyle Young has never scored more than 18 points in a game in his Ohio State career, but he had that many in the first half alone in Friday's game against Purdue.
Unfortunately, an elbow to the head early in the second half prevented Young from building on that total.
Young played the best 14 minutes of his entire four years as a Buckeye in the first half, making 7-of-9 shot attempts from the floor, including four 3-pointers. The last of those threes came just four seconds before halftime to send Ohio State into the break with a 49-31 lead, as Young's 18 points matched the exact difference between the Buckeyes and Boilermakers in the first half.
After battling leg soreness for most of the regular season, which often forced him to take rest days and miss practices between games, Young looked as healthy as he had all year in the first half even though he was playing for the second straight day following Ohio State's 79-75 win over Minnesota on Thursday.
“Kyle is feeling good right now,” Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said Wednesday. “He is feeling good. His legs are feeling good. His head’s in a good spot. Everything’s fine there.”
Young's day came to an end early less than five minutes into the second half, however, when he took an inadvertent elbow to the head from Purdue center Trevion Williams. Though he stayed in the game briefly – and even delivered an assist to E.J. Liddell – he checked out of the game at the subsequent timeout to be evaluated by the athletic training staff. He eventually went back to the locker room and did not return to the game.
Holtmann said after the game that Young was being evaluated for a possible concussion, but did not have an update on Young's status for Saturday's game against Michigan, saying he had not yet talked to team doctors. Asked why Young was not pulled from the game immediately, Holtmann acknowledged that might have been a mistake but said he deferred to Young in the moment.
“We pulled him initially out of an abundance of caution,” Holtmann said. “He said he wanted to play and gave us the indication that he was OK. Perhaps looking back on it, I could have pulled him and maybe should have done that, but in that moment, I just kind of looked and trusted what he said.”
Holtmann said Young's play in the first half was “unbelievable,” and he also praised the way his team responded to losing him for most of the second half and overtime.
“I thought it was a phenomenal response,” Holtmann said. “It was a tough one without Kyle.”
While Ohio State blew its entire 18-point lead in the second half, the Buckeyes outscored Purdue 15-6 in overtime to earn a 87-78 win over the Boilermakers and advance to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals.
