Jake Diebler should bottle and sell whatever is making his team click in halftime locker rooms.
During its current three-game winning streak, Ohio State has outscored opponents 137 to 98 in the second half, an average of nearly 10 points per game. The ferocity with which the Buckeyes have attacked second halves has been a key factor in propelling them back to the NCAA Tournament bubble.
“Just holding each other accountable, telling guys we need to come out with energy in the first four minutes of the second half,” star point guard Bruce Thornton said. “We keep doing that. We keep harping on it. And the results have helped us so much. It's thanks to the guys on the coaching staff because we're just trying to win.”
A picturesque second frame at then-No. 11 Purdue on Jan. 21 not only provides the best example of Ohio State’s recent trend exiting intermission, it proved the foundation for all the momentum that is now surging furiously through Diebler’s program. With a 10-8 record off of three straight one-score losses, a 13-point halftime deficit in Mackey Arena felt insurmountable for the Buckeyes.
Instead, Ohio State opened the second half on a 17-2 run to take a 45-43 lead before battling its way for a 73-70 victory. It broke a 26-game home winning streak for the Boilermakers that spanned nearly 700 days.
The key then for the Buckeyes was to keep the wind in their sails through a home voyage against Iowa six days later. Things looked dicey at times in the first half and the Hawkeyes cut Ohio State’s lead to two points in the opening seconds of the second, but the Scarlet and Gray floated away with an 18-4 run en route to an 82-65 win.
“I think you're seeing an ability from our group as a whole to make adjustments,” Diebler said afterward. “And then, I want to point out specifically Evan Mahaffey, Sean Stewart and Ques Glover. Those guys, we challenged them to do more, and I thought they were great in the second half (against Iowa).”
Diebler said Mahaffey “flipped the script” on his first-half minutes against the Hawkeyes in the second half, where he recorded four points and collected three offensive rebounds with some versatile defensive play to boot. Glover also picked up four points and added two assists with two rebounds in the final 20 minutes, providing vital rest for starting guards Thornton and John Mobley Jr.
“Holding each other accountable, telling guys we need to come out with energy in the first four minutes of the second half. We keep doing that. We keep harping on it.”– Bruce Thornton on Ohio State's success in second halves
Stewart made some “big-time plays” in the second half per Diebler, gobbling up six points, four rebounds and three steals. But his biggest impact may have been his containment of Iowa center Owen Freeman. Freeman had 11 points and seven rebounds in the first half only to manage just three points and one board in the final period.
“It really wasn't an adjustment,” Thornton said of Ohio State defending Freeman in the second half. “Coach Diebler and I, we just told the bigs to play better, to play harder. And they did. I would tell y’all if it was a scheme or something, but they just played with a different level of energy and toughness. And you see what happens when you play like that. Things go your way.”
Ohio State came out of the locker room with such fervor against Iowa and Penn State, who it smashed 83-64 on the road, that they hit cruise control mode by the closing stretches of both games. The Buckeyes led by double digits for the final 15 minutes against the Hawkeyes and the final 11 minutes against the Nittany Lions.
For context, Diebler’s crew was fresh off five consecutive one-score games before it faced Iowa.
“It felt weird,” Thornton said of having a big lead down the stretch. “It felt too good to be true. But it’s just a credit to how hard we've been practicing. We’ve practiced extremely hard and we’re getting the results that we wanted. We're playing together, playing hard, holding each other accountable as a coaching staff, teammates.”
Thornton’s leadership and that of fellow veterans like Micah Parrish has been the primary catalyst for Ohio State’s second-half surges on its three-game winning streak, Diebler said. That duo has led by example – Parrish had 52 points and 15 rebounds combined in the three games while Thornton collected 43 points and 10 assists.
“Guys have responded to being led by our upperclassmen and then also accepting challenges because of the standard we have for effort, toughness, playing with urgency,” Diebler said. “We hold guys to that standard and those guys responded. So, I think give them credit, kind of starts there. We've shown an ability to make adjustments when we have some time to sit down and really lock into it on the board and talk through it. I think our staff deserves a ton of credit for that, but certainly our players going out and executing and playing with the urgency necessary.”
Ohio State will need not only a strong second half but a strong outing overall if it intends to extend its winning streak to four games. No. 18 Illinois will be no slouch at their home in the State Farm Center, even if the Fighting Illini are fresh off a road loss to Nebraska. Tipoff is at 1 p.m. Sunday on CBS.
