Recap: Ohio State Advances To Quarterfinals After Holding On Late For 72-69 Win Over Iowa

Bruce Thornton led Ohio State (21-11) to a 72-69 win over No. 9 seeded Iowa (21-12) in its first Big Ten tournament game at the United Center in Chicago on March 12.

The Buckeyes struggled offensively in the first few minutes of the game before getting hot from the field, finishing shooting 26 of 47 (55.3 percent) in the game. They held a lead as big as 16 points. Iowa was able to chip away throughout the second half, but it was too little too late.

Iowa got the scoring started with a three-pointer from Tavion Banks at 19:05, which was the beginning of an 8-2 run that senior center Christoph Tilly ended when he made two free throws at 16:04.

Two more free throws from junior forward Devin Royal made it a two-point game. But the Buckeyes went into another early scoring drought that lasted over three minutes before Tilly went to the line again to knock down 1 of 2 tries to make it a 12-7 game.

The next drive down the floor, Tilly ended the OSU field goal drought that lasted nearly eight minutes and senior guard Bruce Thornton followed with a contested layup to make it a two-point game.

After Bennett Stirtz knocked down a three as the shot-clock ran down, Ohio State scored four straight points on a dunk from freshman forward Amare Bynum and a hook shot from Tilly that made it 16-15.

The Buckeyes took their first lead of the game, 21-20, on a layup from Bynum with 5:10 left in the first half.

Sophomore guard Gabe Cupps got involved with an open three from the top of the key at 3:39.

Ohio State got its lead out to four points when Tilly made both chances of a 1-and-1, its biggest of the game to that point. One more Tilly free throw made it 31-25 with 1:28 left in the frame.

A late Thornton layup made it a 34-30 Buckeye lead at the half despite shooting just 1 of 8 from beyond the arc (12.5 percent) as a team in the first 20 minutes.

Iowa scored the first points of the second half, but Ohio State scored four straight points to make it a 38-32 game. After an Iowa free throw, sophomore guard John Mobley Jr. made his first three-pointer of the game to make it an eight-point lead.

A three-point play from Thornton made it a nine-point lead for the Buckeyes and he made a jumper, a layup and a three to cap a 13-2 OSU run that made it 51-35.

The Hawkeyes had a quick 5-0 spurt before both teams traded deep balls and Mobley added another for OSU.

Iowa was able to get the Buckeye lead back to single digits with an 8-0 run that ended with two free throws at 8:09. Mobley ended the scoreless stretch for Ohio State with a make of his own from the charity stripe, but the Hawkeyes made it a 59-53 game with two more free throws.

With their lead shrinking, the Buckeyes got a layup from Tilly, a defensive stop and a three-pointer from Mobley to get their lead back to 11 points with 6:11 left in the game.

But the Hawkeyes weren’t going away without a fight and nearly three minutes later, a three from Alvaro Folgueiras made it 68-62 with 3:33 left in the game.

The lead got down to three points when Banks made a dunk at 1:22 and Iowa got a stop on the other side. Stirtz made two free throws to make it a one-point game. Thornton missed a layup with nine seconds left and Bynum missed the putback, but Mobley got the rebound when the ball bounced back out to the free-throw line and was fouled. He made both free throws for a 72-69 lead with eight seconds left.

After a timeout, Iowa put up a quick three, trying to avoid being fouled by OSU, and the shot from Brendan Houser hit the top of the backboard into the shot clock. Tilly was fouled on the inbounds pass and missed his first free throw, giving the Hawkeyes another chance. They were fouled for a 1-and-1. Iowa missed the first free throw, but got the rebound and threw up a three-pointer as the buzzer sounded that was just short.

Thornton led Ohio State in the win with 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting while adding a game-high six rebounds. Tilly had a strong scoring performance with 16 points, making 5 of 6 from the floor and Mobley (12) and both reached double figures as well.