No. 11 Michigan State’s Late Blitz Hands Ohio State 62-44 Loss

Ohio State hung with No. 11 Michigan State for more than 32 minutes, but the Spartans took over from there to rout the Buckeyes a 62-44 defeat at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Mich., on Sunday afternoon.

The Spartans (21-5, 12-3 Big Ten) ended the game on a 20-2 run in the final 7:40 after a C.J. Jackson three-pointer tied the score at 42 for the Buckeyes (16-9, 6-8 Big Ten), who have lost two straight.

That would be the final field goal for the Buckeyes, who made one of their last 11 shots and shot 19.9 percent (4 for 21) from the floor in the second half when they committed 11 of their 15 turnovers.

For the game, OSU shot 32 percent (18-56); MSU was at 38 percent (21-55).

OSU led 31-25 at the half but was outscored an astounding 37-13 in the final 20 minutes.

Sophomore Kaleb Wesson led Ohio State with 12 points, but he took only two shots and made one in the second half when he scored four points. Jackson was next with eight points.

Matt McQuaid led the Spartans with 14 points and Cassius Winston added 11. Nick Ward had nine points in only 19 minutes and played sparingly in the second half when he was hampered by a left hand injury.

The Buckeyes seemed poised for an upset until the Spartans’ blitz.

Kyle Ahrens, older brother of OSU freshman forward Justin Ahrens, put the Spartans ahead 45-42 with a three-pointer from the left corner with 7:26 to play in the back-and-forth second half.

Kenny Goins followed with a jumper to give the Spartans their largest lead to that point and McQuaid put the game out of reach with a trey as the Buckeyes fell apart.

They committed eight turnovers in the first 15 minutes of the second half and made just 4 of 17 shots during that span, including missing two fast-break attempts and the Spartans beat the Buckeyes for the second time this season.

An 86-77 loss to the Spartans at Value City Arena on Jan. 5 ended a five-game winning streak for the Buckeyes and started them on a five-game tailspin.

Ohio State teetered on letting the first half slip away but responded big time for 31-25 halftime lead by going on a 7-0 run and keeping the Spartans scoreless the final 3:14.

The Buckeyes raced to a 14-5 lead after Kaleb Wesson dropped in a basket with 12:40 left. They still led 16-12 when Jackson committed the Buckeyes’ first turnover with 9:54 remaining. They would have only four in the opening 20 minutes.

OSU increased the margin to 18-12 before Michigan State ran off eight straight points while the Buckeyes missed six consecutive shots for a 20-18 advantage.

The Buckeyes stormed out of timeout with buckets by Kaleb Wesson, Andre Wesson and Luther Muhammad to assume a 24-20 lead. In a game of momentum, the Spartans went up 25-24 but went cold from there.

Musa Jallow’s triple put OSU up 27-25. Jackson made it 29-25 and Kyle Young scored off a feed by Jallow for the final points of the half with 1:42 left.

Kaleb Wesson led the Buckeyes with eight first-half points. Ward topped Michigan State with nine.

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