Ohio State’s trip to the Big Ten Tournament lasted only one game.
After starting the tournament with a double bye, the top-seeded Buckeyes lost their first game of postseason play on Friday, falling to No. 8 seed Maryland 82-61 in a quarterfinal upset.
| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | FINAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #8 MARYLAND | 12 | 26 | 27 | 17 | 82 |
| #1 OHIO STATE | 17 | 13 | 22 | 9 | 61 |
Maryland took control of the game with a 26-13 second quarter and led for the entire second half to send the No. 1 seed home after just one contest in Minneapolis.
Ohio State remains in position to host first- and second-round games in the NCAA Tournament with a 25-5 record this season and a regular-season Big Ten championship, but the first-game loss in the Big Ten Tournament will likely knock the Buckeyes out of a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance.
Shooting and rebounding struggles doomed the Buckeyes on Friday as Ohio State shot just 35.9% from the field and was outrebounded 55-31.
“We didn't make a lot of shots that normally do,” Ohio State guard Jacy Sheldon said after the loss. “Credit to them, they played great, though. Really, we got outrebounded. That was the main factor for us that we're gonna have to be better at moving forward.”
Shyanne Sellers, the daughter of former Ohio State men’s basketball center Brad Sellers, led the Terrapins with 25 points while Jakia Brown-Turner (19), Brinae Alexander (19) and Faith Masonius (15) also had big days for Maryland. Rebeka Mikulasikova led the Buckeyes with 16 points with Taylor Thierry (13), Cotie McMahon (12) and Sheldon (10) also reaching double digits in defeat.
After making just one of its first six field goal attempts to fall into an early 8-3 hole, Ohio State responded with an 8-0 run to take the lead midway through the first quarter. The Buckeyes would hold the lead for the remainder of the quarter, finishing the first quarter with a 17-12 lead despite being outrebounded 17-10 and shooting just 35% from the field (6-of-17) in the first 10 minutes.
Brown-Turner scored six of the first eight points of the second quarter to cut Ohio State’s lead down to one point. A subsequent pair of 3-pointers by Alexander followed by a second-chance bucket from Masonius gave Maryland a 26-19 lead as the Terrapins started the second quarter on a 14-2 run.
| OHIO STATE | STAT | MARYLAND |
|---|---|---|
| 61 | POINTS | 82 |
| 23-64 (35.9%) | FGM-FGA (PCT.) | 31-73 (42.5%) |
| 6-22 (27.3%) | 3PM-3PA (PCT.) | 6-19 (31.6%) |
| 9-14 (64.3%) | FTM-FTA (PCT.) | 14-17 (82.4%) |
| 13 | TURNOVERS | 15 |
| 31 | TOTAL REBOUNDS | 55 |
| 10 | OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS | 21 |
| 21 | DEFENSIVE REBOUNDS | 34 |
| 3 | BENCH POINTS | 4 |
| 5 | BLOCKS | 6 |
| 8 | STEALS | 4 |
| 17 | ASSISTS | 18 |
The Terrapins outscored Ohio State 26-13 for the second quarter as a whole to take an eight-point lead, 38-30, into halftime. Ohio State made just 12 of its 33 first-half field goal attempts (36.4%) while Maryland won the first-half rebounding battle 29-15.
Ohio State started the second half on a 9-4 run to cut Maryland’s lead to three, but the Terrapins then went on a 9-0 run to make it a 12-point game. The Terrapins extended their lead to 19 points with another 9-0 run late in the third quarter that included a technical foul against Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff, who expressed frustration after the loss with how the game was officiated.
“It didn't impact who won the game. Maryland deserved to win the game. They were the better team today, so let me make that crystal clear. But there's a whole lot I don't understand about the way the game is called,” McGuff said.
The Buckeyes went on an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 11 before Sellers capped off a 12-point third quarter with a layup to give Maryland a 65-52 lead entering the final frame.
Maryland scored six of the first eight points of the fourth quarter to push its lead back out to 17, and the Buckeyes never made another run to get back into the game from there, finishing the fourth quarter with only nine points.
“They played like a team that might have needed this to get in the tournament, and we played like a team that showed up as the No. 1 seed and everybody was just supposed to lie down,” McGuff said. “One of the things I think we've really hung our hat on this year is our competitive character. And we've not lost a game this year where our competitive character hasn't been where it needed to be. But it wasn't there today. They wanted the game more. You got to really fight on defense, you got to fight to get rebounds, and we didn't fight.”
What’s Next
Ohio State will now have two weeks between games before playing its first-round NCAA Tournament game on either Friday, March 22 or Saturday, March 23. The Buckeyes, who entered the Big Ten Tournament with a chance to be a No. 1 seed but are now likely to be a No. 2 or 3 seed, will find out their NCAA Tournament draw on Selection Sunday, March 17, when the bracket will be revealed at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
Game Notes
- Ohio State has now lost back-to-back games for the first time all year, having suffered a 93-83 loss to Iowa in its final game of the regular season. The Buckeyes, who won the regular-season Big Ten championship. had won 15 straight games before the loss in Iowa City.
- It’s the first time Ohio State has lost its opening game of the Big Ten Tournament since 2019, when the fifth-seeded Buckeyes were upset by No. 13 seed Wisconsin in a second-round game.
