No fight song, just jeers at Iowa as poor defense leads to another Ohio State loss
IOWA CITY, Iowa – It’s tradition for Ohio State to sing a version of the fight song inside the locker room after a win. It ramps up a notch after a road win, when the coaching staff likes to crack open the door so their voices can be heard echoing down the hallway.
Thursday night inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena, there was no sound emanating from the visitors’ locker room. The door remained firmly shut for a length period of time as, down the hallway, dozens of Iowa fans made their way to the exits. And since the door was shut, it meant the Buckeyes couldn’t hear the mocking cries of one fan once he realized where they were.
“Hey, seven in a row!” the fan shouted as his friends attempted to hurry him along.
Of course, hearing the lone heckler would’ve been redundant. No member of the Ohio State program, those inside the locker room or those packing things up in the hallway trying to expedite their departure, was unaware that Iowa’s 92-75 win marked a seventh straight loss for the Buckeyes. Or that this latest defeat came at the hands of the only team Ohio State has beaten since New Year’s Day.
They know. With a Sunday road game against Purdue looming, the Buckeyes continue their search for answers in an increasingly mystifying season.
“We played a good team,” coach Chris Holtmann told The Dispatch. “We need to be better. I don’t make any bones about that. They’re good offensively and we just didn’t have a good enough defensive approach today. I thought offensively, we were better. We worked on a lot of those things in practice the last couple days in terms of movement. I just didn’t think we were good defensively.”
The numbers back him up. Last time out, Ohio State held Michigan State to 62 points but still lost by 21 as the offense mustered only 41 points, tying for its lowest output since Feb. 7, 1996. On that Sunday afternoon at Value City Arena, it was the offense that crippled Ohio State.
Thursday, the Buckeyes scored 75 points, their most since the 93-77 win against the Hawkeyes on Jan. 21. They entered the rematch 7-2 this season when making at least half their shots, went 28 for 49 (57.1%) against the Hawkeyes and trailed for 35:36.
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The 92 points allowed are the most by an Ohio State opponent this year, and Iowa’s 56.9% field-goal percentage (37 for 65) is the worst allowed by the Buckeyes this season.
“Their motion and cutting was really good,” Holtmann said. “We were trying to mix up some things. I think we got caught staring at the ball too much and staring at drives too much. We had a hard time guarding the ball. I thought we had some periods of really good effort and some stretches where I’ve got to go back and look at it.”
It got away from the Buckeyes in the closing minutes of the first half. Ahead 36-35 on a Brice Sensabaugh 3-pointer with 2:56 left, the freshman had a chance to add to it with a steal and a fastbreak chance at the other end. He missed the layup, Iowa’s Connor McCaffery reclaimed the lead with a 3-pointer with 2:20 left and the Hawkeyes would close with a 12-0 run.
Just like that, it was an 11-point halftime deficit, much like the team’s loss at Indiana on Jan. 28 when the Hoosiers closed the first half on a 15-0 run.
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“That’s something I said in the locker room at halftime,” senior guard Sean McNeil said. “We played really well for a majority of the first half and there’s a 2 ½, 3-minute stretch where defensively we have continuous lapses where we give up big plays and allow them to make runs. This was similar to that game.”
It was similar to a lot of games this calendar year for the Buckeyes, who have now dropped 12 of their last 13 games and frequently cited little lapses or stretches where games get away from them. With six guaranteed games remaining, the opportunity to vanquish those moments from games and put together a win is vanishing.
The halftime talk centered on the defensive end of the court.
“We needed to be better defensively,” Holtmann said. “That was really the focus. We did talk about that we played well. We really played 17 good minutes offensively and 17 minutes pretty well. Their small lineup hurt us with their motion and their five-out. We just don’t have a great answer for that right now.”
Plenty of teams don’t. Iowa entered the game leading the Big Ten in scoring (80.6 points per game) and now is third nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency according to KenPom.com. In the first meeting between these teams, Ohio State held Iowa to 108.7 points per 100 possessions – the 10th-lowest mark of the season for the Hawkeye offense.
Thursday, Iowa finished at 138.9 points per 100 possessions for its best performance of the year.
“There’s some things that continue to happen, but Iowa shot it well tonight,” McNeil said. “We gave up some plays that stuck out to me. We gave up some easy buckets in transition, either at the rim or spot-up 3s. offensive rebounds, they grabbed a couple and sprayed it out. They made big shots when they needed to and stretched the game open.”
Ohio State led the first meeting for 31:10. During this seven-game losing streak, it has held a lead for 35:17.
“I would say they looked the same to me,” Iowa’s Tony Perkins, who had 24 points on 11 of 16 shooting, said. “On our end, we just wasn’t connected defensively (last time). We let them get comfortable and do what they do as a player. They’re all Power 5 players, so everybody can hoop. We just brought defensive intensity, moved the ball and did what we had to do.”
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Brice Sensabaugh scores more, still has struggles
From a pure scoring standpoint, Sensabaugh posted his best performance since the aforementioned Indiana game. In 23:54, he went 6 for 11 from the floor for 16 points, finishing behind just McNeil’s 20-point effort for the Buckeyes.
He also had a season-high six turnovers, three of which came in the first four minutes of the game.
“He’s got to continue to grow in those areas,” Holtmann said. “He wants to, and now he’s got to make some adjustments. When you’re an aggressive scorer like he is and a gifted scorer like he is, it can always be a challenge to figure out when to attack. He’s still growing as a player in terms of reading the game, but I just think we had too many unforced turnovers. Not just him.”
The Buckeyes turned it over 14 times and Iowa, despite only registering seven steals, had a 16-4 advantage in points off turnovers. The Hawkeyes also finished with a 15-4 advantage in second-chance points as Ohio State finished with a season-low two offensive rebounds.
“I did not think we went to the offensive glass well enough at all,” Holtmann said. “We really did in game one. It hurts having Zed not play a whole lot but I don’t think we’re great on the glass and defensively we weren’t great. We did not rebound the ball at the level we needed to.”
Justice Sueing led Ohio State with four rebounds.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State's defense struggles in double-digit road loss to Iowa
