Buckeyes Continue Home Stretch vs. Michigan State Thursday
3/2/2022 2:55:59 PM | Men's Basketball
#23/23 Ohio State vs. Michigan State
Date: March 3, 2022
Time: 7 p.m.
Venue: Value City Arena – Columbus, Ohio
Watch: ESPN
Listen: Ohio State Radio Network from Learfield
Live Stats: OhioStateBuckeyes.com
Game Notes: Ohio State | Michigan State
Rosters: Ohio State | Michigan State
Season Stats: Ohio State | Michigan State
TICKETS: Single-game and mini plans are available for the final two men’s basketball games this season. Visit OhioStateBuckeyes.com or call the Ohio State Athletics Ticket Office in the Schottenstein Center at 1-800-GOBUCKS.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State continues its closing stretch of seven games in 16 days when it hosts Michigan State on Thursday evening at Value City Arena. The Buckeyes lead Michigan State by one game in the Big Ten standings and this will be the lone regular season meeting this season. Brian Custer and Jon Crispin will call the action on BTN.
- Thursday’s game will be the 139th all-time meeting between the two programs. The Spartans officially own the all-time series lead at 73-58 and have won five of the last six meetings in the series.
- The Buckeyes come into the game riding their first two-game losing streak of the season. They fell at Maryland last Sunday and to Nebraska on Tuesday night.
- The Buckeyes are playing four games in the final eight days of the regular season and are doing so a bit short-handed. Zed Key suffered and ankle injury Sunday and did not play against Nebraska. Kyle Young replaced him in the starting lineup but he only played eight minutes vs. Nebraska before leaving with an illness.
- The Buckeyes are two wins away from a 20-win season for the fifth consecutive year. They would be just one of three Power 5 teams (Oregon & Kansas) to record 20 wins each of the last five years. Head coach Chris Holtmann’s teams have won 20 or more games in each of the last eight years.
- J. Liddell was one of the bright spots in the Nebraska game on Tuesday. The Belleville, Ill., native was dominant, scoring a game-high 27 points, grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds and swatting a game-high six shots. That was his seventh double-double of the year and the third game this season with six or more blocks.
- Liddell is eighth in program history with 132 career blocks while leading the Big Ten this year with 72 blocks.
- Malaki Branham is the reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Week. He has scored in double figures in each of the last six games and is averaging 20.0 ppg over that stretch.
- Branham’s highlight moment last week was a 31-point effort in the win at No. 15 Illinois. That was his second 30-point game this season and he joins D’Angelo Russell and Michael Redd as the only Buckeye freshmen with multiple 30-point games.
- Jimmy Sotos came off the bench vs. Nebraska and played a season-high 22:48 minutes. He scored eight points on 2-of-2 from long range and also dished out a pair of assists.
- In the last five games, the Buckeye have attempted an average of 23.3 free throws per game. On the year, they are shooting 75.7 percent from the line which is tops in the Big Ten.
#GoBucks
