Ohio State was on the cusp of a significant swing in momentum.
After trailing Iowa by one point at halftime Saturday, the Buckeyes started the second half with a bang, scoring seven of the first nine points to open the period and retaking a four-point lead with 17:35 to go.
Then the wheels fell off.
Ohio State still held a two-point lead after an E.J. Liddell jumper at the 15:57 mark, but once Iowa took the lead 68 seconds later, the Buckeyes never got back out in front. Several factors led to a flat second half for Ohio State in the 75-62 home loss, its first of the season, but perhaps none as impactful as its frequent turnovers and inability to clean up the defensive glass against the Hawkeyes. Ohio State turned the ball over seven times in the final 16:26 alone, and gave up six offensive boards to Iowa in the final 15:33.
“They beat us to a lot of loose balls, we obviously gotta get better in that,” Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said after the loss. “Struggled making shots. Our turnovers and our rebounding was the two issues that are most glaring to me.”
If there was one sequence to illustrate Ohio State’s shortcomings on the glass on Saturday, it would undoubtedly be the crucial Iowa possession in the final few minutes wherein the Hawkeyes got three chances to score during a six-point game.
Iowa forward Kris Murray missed a 3-pointer with 2:16 to go, but Connor McCaffery came up with the rebound thereafter. Aaron Ulis missed a layup 10 seconds later, but Jordan Bohannon kept the possession alive. Finally the ball found its way back to McCaffery, who drilled a 3-pointer to give Iowa a nine-point lead with just 1:44 to play.
The shot itself might have been the dagger, but the offensive rebounds made it possible in the first place.
“I think our inability to get first-time stops and guarding all of their motion, I think we did wear down,” Holtmann said. “And again, give them credit, but clearly I didn’t think we had enough force and physicality across the board, really. We just didn’t pay with enough force or physicality, and that’s my fault.”
Iowa finished with 20 offensive rebounds for the game, including 14 in the first half alone, and the Hawkeyes had 18 second-chance points. While only four different Buckeyes pulled down offensive rebounds on the other end, Iowa had eight players tally at least one and five notch two or more. The overall rebounding was 40-31 in favor of the Hawkeyes, and nearly all of that differential came on the offensive glass.
E.J. Liddell finished with five blocks for the Buckeyes, but a couple of them ended up becoming second-chance points, and Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said even an attempt at a block can open things up for potential offensive boards.
“It’s something we talked about a lot. The thing about their team, they’re coming to block. You go to the basket, they’re coming for you. So that leaves opportunities for weak side rebounding,” McCaffery said. “And they get a lot of them, and it creates a lot of uncertainty with guys who drive against them, but we always want to get downhill and if we miss, we gotta get the weak side rebounds, and we did that tonight.”
Holtmann said the issue had less to do with Liddell’s block attempts and more to do with the reactions of his teammates afterwards.
“They were quicker to the ball than us in those situations. E.J. made a couple phenomenal blocks and our guys were just watching. They were just watching,” Holtmann said. “A number of guys just watching the play as opposed to reacting. Clearly we gotta be better with that. That just wasn’t good enough.”
The other prevailing issue for Ohio State was its 14 turnovers, which were its most in a game since Jan. 9. Malaki Branham and Liddell each had a team-high three for the game, and Branham, Liddell and Eugene Brown combined for six in the second half as the game slipped away from the Buckeyes.
For a seven-game stretch spanning from Jan. 16 to Feb. 12, turnover struggles appeared to be a thing of the past for the Buckeyes. Ohio State committed at least 10 in 13 of its first 14 games, but after that, the Buckeyes turned the ball over no more than nine times in seven games straight. Ohio State had 10 in Tuesday’s blowout win over Minnesota, though, and the Buckeyes have now had a double-digit turnover total in back-to-back games.
Now the Buckeyes have just two nights before taking on Indiana in a rematch of a game they lost by 16 in the first meeting, but Holtmann says the issues that cost them against Iowa must be corrected beforehand.
“We gotta get better at these areas that we struggled in. Indiana’s a terrific team and gonna present a lot of challenges,” Holtmann said. “But right now, as much as anything, we gotta find a way to coach and play better leading into really another big test for us. That will be addressed first.”
