Sunday’s loss can be boiled down to a six-minute stretch for Ohio State.
This time, it wasn’t an end-of-game sequence or late execution error that cost the Buckeyes a Big Ten win. The problem wasn’t with how Ohio State finished the second half, but how the Buckeyes started the second half.
Ohio State held a two-possession lead at halftime, but how it got there was telling. Maryland missed 15 of its final 16 shots to end the first half, and the Buckeye took advantage with a 13-3 run. Despite shooting just 34.5% from the field, the Terps led for most of the first half, outrebounded the Buckeyes by eight and got to the free-throw line four more times.
Another 1-for-16 shooting stretch was never likely to follow for Kevin Willard’s squad, and it didn’t. In fact, the Terps never missed more than three straight shots the rest of the way. Maryland turned it on as soon as the second half started, and not just on offense. A furious stretch of red-hot shooting and full-court defensive pressure shellshocked the Buckeyes, turned the game around and ultimately delivered the Terps their first Big Ten win in more than a month.
Maryland nailed seven of its first eight shots to open the second period and scored the first 14 points in a row before Ohio State answered. The Buckeyes misfired on eight straight field goals and went from up five to down nine just 5:01 into the second half.
The defensive lapses didn’t just come from one individual matchup, nor solely from Maryland’s size advantage given the absence of Zed Key (shoulder). Three different Terps scored during the 14-0 run, and those six makes came on layups, jumpers and 3-pointers alike, both out of half-court sets and on the fastbreak.
12-0 RUN TO START THE HALF!!!
— Maryland Mens Basketball (@TerrapinHoops) January 8, 2023
TIMEOUT OHIO STATE! pic.twitter.com/oBAC25fOAV
Ohio State only made it easier for the Terps to put up points in a hurry with their own sloppy offensive execution. The Buckeyes turned the ball over only four times in the first half, three fewer than Maryland, but they coughed it up on five occasions in the first 2:57 of the second half alone. Brice Sensabaugh and Bruce Thornton each had two of those apiece and Justice Sueing had the other.
Without Key on the floor and with Felix Okpara having picked up three fouls in the first half alone, Chris Holtmann utilized entirely perimeter-oriented lineups extensively against Maryland. But that didn’t aid the Buckeyes much in terms of ballhandling. At least not during the stretch in question.
A full court-press has hurt Ohio State before. It helped North Carolina make a second-half comeback late in the Tar Heels’ overtime win over the Buckeyes in New York City last month, and Purdue forced a game-changing turnover out of a full-court trap in the final minute of Thursday’s dramatic Boilermaker win in Columbus. Even from the outset of Sunday’s contest, it was clear that Maryland took note.
I have a lot of questions. pic.twitter.com/75j67dvl8C
— Josh Poloha (@JorshP) January 6, 2023
The Terrapins pressed Ohio State on every made bucket from the start of the game. Only Ohio State handled it without much trouble early on. Things changed when the intensity was ratcheted up another notch in the second half, though, and the Buckeyes turned the ball over multiple times out of the press to help spur on Maryland’s critical run.
The first six minutes of the half represented the launching point, but by the 9:41 mark, the Terps had taken a 14-point lead – their largest of the game. Things really could’ve gotten out of hand at that point, but Ohio State showed resilience to sweaty some palms in College Park thereafter.
After Maryland mounted its 14-point edge, Ohio State embarked on a 13-2 run that brought it back within three points with 6:15 to play. It was still a one-possession game with 2:40 to play, as back-to-back Roddy Gayle makes kept it a three-point contest in crunch time. But the hole Ohio State dug for itself early in the half was just an inch too deep.
Frequent Ohio State fouls throughout the day added up by the final few minutes, and while seven of the nine Buckeyes who logged minutes piled up at least three fouls, Maryland needed only to knock down free throws to stay a step ahead late.
Ohio State hit five field goals to Maryland’s three in the final five minutes of play. But the Terps hit 10 free throws in that stretch. The Buckeyes didn’t even attempt one.
For Holtmann, the resolve his young team showed in battling back after going down double-digits was a positive sign. Ohio State has still only lost one game by 10 or more points this season, and Sunday’s seven-point margin of defeat is no great shame.
But Maryland was a beatable Big Ten opponent for the Buckeyes, even on the road, and a poised approach to the start of the second half would likely have delivered Ohio State that win to close out the week.
