No. 20 Ohio State (15-6, 5-3) only led for 166 seconds in the second half, but it was enough to knock off Iowa (8-13, 2-6), 65-57, in Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Wednesday night.
The Buckeyes closed out the last 8:18 of the game on a 27-12 run thanks to a flurry of points from junior standout Evan Turner, who buried the Hawkeyes with eight points in the last 1:39. A four-minute scoring drought late in the second half doomed head coach Todd Lickliter’s team, handing Ohio State a seven-point lead with just over a minute remaining.
“I believed in them the whole way … so I’m really disappointed — not in their effort. I’m just disappointed in the outcome,” Lickliter said. “When it was time to finish, I think we got a little apprehensive.”
Turner, who came into the contest averaging 18.6 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, scored 16 Wednesday night, eight of which came down the stretch. While the junior struggled most of the game with freshman Eric May draped all over him, Ohio State junior David Lighty exploded for 18 points in the second half.
In fact, Lighty ignited a 14-5 Ohio State spurt late in the second half, giving the Buckeyes a two-point lead with 2:46 remaining — their first advantage since 7:49 remaining in the first half.
Sophomore William Buford scored 11 for head coach Thad Matta, and Dallas Lauderdale added 10.
“Until the last few minutes, we were guarding one of the best teams in the nation toe-for-toe,” Lickliter said.
Even with Lighty knocking down shots, May’s 3-point shooting kept the Hawkeyes on top most of the second half. Sophomore Matt Gatens, who suffered an ankle injury earlier Wednesday, contributed only six points.
May was the only Hawkeye in double-figures, scoring a team-high 18 points. The Dubuque native made 5-of-10 attempts from long distance. Playing in front of 12,132 fans, Iowa connected on 10-of-31 (32 percent) shots from 3-point range.
“It was just one of those nights where [my shot] did feel good, but unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough,” May said.
When the Buckeyes narrowed the deficit to two with 10:50 remaining, May hit back-to-back 3-pointers. A minute-and-a-half later, senior Devan Bawinkel hit his second triple of the night to give Iowa a seven-point lead, its biggest at that point in the game.
And after a Lighty 3-point play again pulled Ohio State within two, May hit his fourth 3 of the second half with 4:46 remaining.
“[The Buckeyes] turned it up a little bit,” Lickliter said. “They started driving it at us a little bit. I don’t want to take anything away from them. They’re a great team.”
In what was a slow start, the two teams combined to score five points in the game’s first four minutes. Iowa had two field goals in the first 10 minutes of regulation, 3-pointers from Gatens and redshirt freshman John Lickliter.
A 3 by Bawinkel tied the game at 14 with 6:43 remaining, sparking the loudest cheer all season from the Carver-Hawkeye faithful. Gatens’ triple with 1:18 remaining broke a 31⁄2-minute scoring drought, and Iowa went into the locker room with a five-point lead.
But when the 3s stopped falling down the stretch, Iowa got outscored, 45-32, by the Buckeyes in the second half.
“The game was there for us to take. It was ours for most of the game,” said junior Jarryd Cole, who finished with nine points and five rebounds on Wednesday. “We just couldn’t do it.”
