Seth Towns, if not for the Ohio State jersey or spot in the second row of Ohio State’s bench, might have passed for a neutral observer who didn’t want a thing to do with the action unfolding in front of him. A stoic, almost bored-looking expression on his face, he looked straight ahead with his elbows on top of his thighs as Meechie Johnson leaped around directly to his right.
Less than a minute remained in regulation of what became an 87-78 Ohio State victory in overtime, and Towns didn’t move an inch. Duane Washington Jr. says he always stays in his ear, telling the fifth-year forward to stay ready, but he didn’t look like somebody to whom those comments would have made a lick of difference.
“Seth is always under control, honestly,” E.J. Liddell said after beating Purdue on Friday. “I feel like Seth is always the level-headed one. He doesn't ever get too high, get too low.”
Towns didn’t get a chance to rise and fire any shots in that final minute. Chris Holtmann inserted him into the game with nine seconds left in the second half of a tie game, but CJ Walker fumbled away what the head coach described as a “space, step-up action” that had previously led to points on a number of occasions.
Instead, Ohio State turned to the always-calm graduate transfer in overtime, when he played all but seven seconds as part of a season-high 21 minutes.
Duane Washington Jr. first found Towns behind the arc for a triple to put Ohio State ahead by four with 2:54 left. The next trip down the court, he dribbled into a pull-up just inside the arc, banking it in to get the lead right back to four after Trevion Williams chipped into it with a pair of free throws. Fifty-one seconds later, Washington splashed a 3 to put the Buckeyes up by seven with 1:16 left.
Liddell, who had fouled out, flexed from on the bench while swinging a towel in his hand. Washington torqued his head and unleashed a scream. They more than made up for the often less-than-emotional Towns.
“Everybody stayed together,” Liddell said. “We followed and executed the game plan. Everybody who came in the game, who subbed in, knew what we were doing.”
Defensively, even without Kyle Young – out with an apparent head injury – and Liddell, the Buckeyes prevented Purdue from making a single shot from the field after Williams hit a turnaround jumper to cut his team's deficit to a single point with 3:18 left. And offensively, they got a pair of fast-break layups from CJ Walker, a 3 and free throws from Washington and a pair of pristine jumpers from Towns to seal a win.
The response, as Holtmann said, was “phenomenal.” The Buckeyes accomplished exactly what they needed to in order to win the five-minute stretch, 15-6. But if he had his choice, he probably would have preferred to avoid the overtime period that put the game further into the balance than any head coach can appreciate.
After all, Ohio State went into halftime up, 49-31. They seemingly had the game in control. Young (18 points) and Washington (15 points) dropped as many points as Purdue's entire team in the first half. The Buckeyes out-rebounded the Boilermakers, 21-13, and simply out-hustled them and snatched loose balls at a rate that led Holtmann to lean onto the court for hi-fives in a couple of instances.
Then, the same confounding issue that has plagued Ohio State over the past few weeks, reappeared.
As the second half progressed, the lead slipped. With 20 minutes left, it was at 18. By the 15:42 mark, it had slipped to 10. Ohio State built it back up to 13, but it dropped to seven on a Jaden Ivey layup with 10:04 left. They went back and forth for a bit, with Liddell putting the Buckeyes up by nine with 5:23 remaining. Yet they didn’t make a shot from the field for the rest of regulation, only scoring on Justice Sueing’s free throws with 23 seconds to go.
The last two possessions before the buzzer – Williams backing down Zed Key and tying the game up on two of his 26 points, then Walker losing control of the ball – epitomized a second half that Ohio State lost, 41-23.
“It's college basketball,” Holtmann said. “This happens.”
He continued: “Just watch college basketball. Purdue's a good team. Give them credit. We had trouble guarding Trevion. We were in foul trouble. There was no shell shock. They were on to the next play. They've done this. They've been around this. This group's an experienced group. Fans might look at it and say, ‘Whoa, they're shellshocked. An 18-point loss.’ I think guys that have been in it understand you've got to play the full 40 minutes. You're playing a really good team. They're going to make some plays. They did. We can do some things better. I was super proud of their poise in the midst of those timeouts.”
Plenty of teams would have wilted once regulation ended. Ohio State, somehow, despite lacking an ounce of momentum, regrouped.
Holtmann pushed back at the idea that anybody in his huddles felt unsure of what to do or how to react. As his junior guard pointed out, this wasn’t a particularly new phenomenon for this team.
“It's hard. It's very emotional,” Washington said. “Got to be very tough – tough on the court, tough mentally. It's not our first time going through this. It's our third or fourth or however many times people are counting that people are coming back against us. Obviously, we need to be better, but going through those situations in practice, going through them in real games, you can't simulate it so if you've never been through it, then it'll be tough when the time comes. I think us being veterans, a lot of our key guys are veterans and have been through this whole deal before.”
Towns has. Walker has. Washington has.
Those three – with 13 combined years of collegiate experience – accounted for 15 of Ohio State’s 16 points in overtime.
They ensured the Buckeyes’ trip wouldn’t end with a single win against Minnesota and a full-fledged collapse in the quarterfinals. Rather, they earned the result that once felt inevitable then seemed unlikely. They got the job done in overtime and sent their team back to the locker room where they celebrated by dousing Holtmann in water and yelling congratulations to him for his 200th career win.
“I had no idea what they were talking about,” Holtmann said. “But they kept saying it over and over. I thought I owed somebody 200.”
If all goes right against Michigan on Saturday, maybe he’ll go into the post-game locker room wondering if he owes somebody $201.
