Ohio State bounces past Gophers 82-74 in overtime

John Mobley Jr. scored 26 points and Bruce Thornton added 23 as Ohio State beat the Gophers 82-74 in overtime on Tuesday, Jan. 20.

The Big Ten men’s basketball game drew 8,750 to Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

The Gophers trailed by double digits in the opening minutes of each half and almost won the game in the final seconds of regulation, but they missed a pair of shots.

Jaylen Crocker-Johnson scored a career-high 26 for the Gophers, 10-9 overall and 3-5 in the Big Ten. Crocker-Johnson had 20 in the second half and overtime in the Gophers’ fourth consecutive loss; they are 1-7 on the road.

In the extra session, the Buckeyes (13-5, 5-3 Big Ten) outscored the Gophers 15-7.

“I’m not going to listen to any moral victories,” Gophers coach Niko Medved told KTLK radio after the game. “We battled, and it was right there for us. It just came down to we couldn’t get a stop or a rebound when we needed.”

Cade Tyson added 15 points for the Gophers before fouling out in overtime, and Isaac Asuma and Langston Reynolds each contributed 12 points.

A three-point play from Thornton gave the Buckeyes a 67-65 lead with 54 seconds remaining, and Crocker-Johnson’s layup with 40 seconds remaining provided the final points of regulation.

Reynolds missed a contested layup with three seconds remaining in regulation, and Tyson tracked down the rebound but missed a three-pointer.

“We shot 50 percent from the field in the second half, and I thought we managed the end of regulation well to get two shots,” Medved said. “In the overtime, we just couldn’t get a stop. We have to scrap and claw for every rebound. We’ve had a few of these, and we have to figure out how to get one. The good news is that we are right there.”

It was the third consecutive game with at least 20 points for Crocker-Johnson, who has 68 points and 24 rebounds in the past three games. Crocker-Johnson and Asuma each had eight rebounds, although the Buckeyes had a 42-31 rebounding edge.