Ohio State (11-5, 3-3 Big Ten) was unable to take the second game of its West Coast trip, falling to Washington (10-6, 2-3), 81-74, on Jan. 11 at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.
The Buckeyes got out to as big of a lead as nine points, but a 14-0 Husky run in the second half gave Washington an advantage that it wouldn’t give up the rest of the contest.
Washington and Ohio State traded buckets and free throws for the first few possessions for a 6-6 tie at 17:19. The Buckeyes would create some separation immediately after with a 10-2 run that included five points from both freshman forward Amare Bynum and senior guard Bruce Thornton.
The Huskies were within six points when Bynum reached 10 points with a three-point jumper at 11:51 to put the Buckeyes up 21-12. Washington answered with a three of its own and after a scoreless minute made a layup for a four-point deficit.
Junior forward Devin Royal made two free throws, and Courtland Muldrew of the Huskies knocked down a three, which started a streak of scoring from beyond the arc for them. Zoom Diallo made two of his own with a three-point make from sophomore guard John Mobley Jr. to split them up, making the score 28-26 at 6:12.
The two teams traded baskets for the next few minutes as the Buckeyes struggled to stretch their lead to more than four points.
Washington ended up tying the game at 36 with 40 seconds left in the first half, but Royal answered to take the lead back with a step-back jumper. Ohio State took a 38-36 lead into the half.
The Buckeyes started the second half with five straight points to go up by seven. After two free throws from senior center Christoph Tilly made it 45-38, Ohio State went scoreless for 4:08 while Washington scored 14 straight points to take a 52-45 lead with 14:19 left.
Bynum finally got the Buckeyes back on the scoreboard with a layup at 14:02, but soon after Washington took a seven-point lead, its biggest of the game to that point.
At 9:52, Royal made a second-chance layup, followed by the Huskies going 1 of 2 on free throws, and Thornton took advantage to bring the Buckeyes within three on a three-pointer, making it 60-57.
Playing in place of Tilly, who left earlier in the half with an injury, sophomore center Ivan Njegovan made a layup to make it a one-point deficit, but Washington scored five straight for a 65-59 score.
The Husky lead extended to eight points with 4:15 left but one minute later OSU had brought it within four again on two Thornton foul shots.
But OSU soon went down by eight points again and could only shrink the deficit to five the rest of the game, losing its fifth game of the season.
Ohio State was led by Thornton, who had 28 points in the contest on 9-of-17 shooting and 7 of 8 from the free-throw line. Bynum had a career-high 20 points in the loss on 8-of-19 shooting. Royal had eight rebounds in the loss.
The Huskies had two 20-plus-point scorers, with Diallo scoring 22 and Hannes Steinbach with 21.
