Buckeyes Cap Opening Home Stretch vs. WMU Sunday

Ohio State vs. Western Michigan
Date: November 19, 2023
Time: 4 p.m.
Venue: Value City Arena – Columbus, Ohio
Watch: BTN
Listen: Ohio State Radio Network from Learfield
Live Stats: OhioStateBuckeyes.com
Game Notes: Ohio State | Western Michigan
Rosters: Ohio State | Western Michigan
Season Stats: Ohio State | Western Michigan

TICKETS: Season, single-game, group and mini plans are available 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 caps its four-game opening homestand on Sunday by hosting Western Michigan. Tip-off is slated for 4 p.m. and the game will be televised on the Big Ten Network. Jason Ross Jr. and Robbie Hummel will call the action.

Sunday's game is the first game of the Emerald Coast Classic which concludes next week in Niceville, Fla., just outside of Destin. The Buckeyes will play Alabama on Friday and then either Oregon or Santa Clara on Saturday. WMU will open with Southeastern Louisiana on Friday afternoon and then play either Mercer or Tennessee State.
This will be the fourth all-time meeting between the two teams and the first since 1988. The teams met in three consecutive seasons in 1986, 1987 and 1988 with the Buckeyes winning all three games. The first two games were played in Columbus and the 1988 meeting came in Kalamazoo.
Ohio State is 60-13 all-time against teams currently in the Mid-American Conference. The last win was a thrilling 67-66 win over Akron in the season-opener in 2021 on a Zed Key lay-in with less than a second left. The last loss came on Dec. 12, 1994, when OSU fell to Bowling Green 59-50. This will be one of three games against teams from the MAC in the next two and a half weeks.
The Buckeyes are coming off a 76-52 win over Merrimack on Wednesday night. Roddy Gayle Jr. tied a career-high with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting and 3-of-4 from long range. Zed Key notched his first double-double of the season with 11 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Key has come off the bench and has played well this season. He is averaging 12.0 points and 9.0 rebounds and leads the Big Ten at 4.33 offensive rebounds per game.
Gayle Jr. has been the Buckeyes' playmaker so far and is averaging 15.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. He is also tied with Key with four dunks on the year, including three ally-oops.
Bruce Thornton hasn't shot the ball as well as he would have liked so far but he is still leading the team at 16.3 ppg and has 11 assists and just one turnover in the last two games.
Jamison Battle has knocked-down a pair of three-pointers in each of the first three games and with 13 points on Wednesday vs. Merrimack, he went over 1,500 points in his career.
Western Michigan has started the year with three hard-fought losses. The Broncos fell in overtime to North Dakota State in the season opener, then lost 77-70 to Georgia State and on Tuesday, they dropped a nip-and-tuck battle at Northwestern 63-59.

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Players Mentioned

Jamison Battle

Roddy Gayle Jr.

Zed Key

Bruce Thornton