Buckeyes Fall Late at Penn State 83-80

Saturday, December 9

State College, Pa.

6:00 p.m.

Ohio State

8-2,1-1Big Ten

Penn State

5-5,1-1Big Ten

Ohio St.

Penn St.

Buckeyes Fall Late at Penn State 83-80

12/9/2023 9:32:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Bruce Thornton scored 17 points and Zed Key notched a second-consecutive double-double but Penn State was able to erase a second half deficit and sneak away with an 83-80 victory on Saturday evening.

The loss snaps Ohio State's seven-game winning streak as the Buckeyes are now 8-2 on the season and 1-1 in Big Ten play.

Thornton had 17 points with four assists while Key finished with 12 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Felix Okpara was 4-of-5 from the floor and finished with nine points and eight rebounds.

Evan Mahaffey, the Penn State transfer, had five points and dished-out a career-high six assists to go along with a career-high tying five rebounds.

Ohio State jumped out to an 11-4 lead on back-to-back three-pointers by Battle. Penn State came back and took a 17-16 but a 15-5 Buckeye run over the next five minutes put the Buckeyes in front 31-22. PSU was scoreless over the final 4:32 of the first and the Buckeyes went to the locker room with a 41-29 lead.

The lead grew to as many as 18 points with 15:31 to play but that's when Penn State got hot. The Nittany Lions made over 60 percent of their shots in the second half and slowly chipped-away at the lead. They would take their first lead of the second half with 32 seconds to play on a three-pointer by Ace Baldwin Jr. They would then hold on in the final moments for the three-point win.

Ohio State will have a week off before heading to Atlanta to take part in the CBS Sports Classic next Saturday. The Buckeyes will play future Big Ten foe UCLA at 3 p.m. on CBS.

Felix Okpara extended his consecutive games streak with at least block to 17 games. He matches Dallas Lauderdale's longest career streak and only Ken Johnson and Greg Oden have had longer streaks since 2000.
Freshman Scotty Middleton had nine points, his most since scoring 13 in the opener against Oakland. He tied his season-high with a pair of three-point field goals in the opening half.
Bruce Thornton has scored in double-figures in nine of the 10 games this season. He finished with 17 points and four assists.
Zed Key notched his second-consecutive double-double and his third of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds. This was the 11^th double-double of his career.
Penn State transfer Evan Mahaffey finished with just five points but grabbed a career-high five rebounds and dished-out a career-high six assists.
Ohio State had 21 assists on 27 field goals. The 21 assists were one-shy of a season-high.
The Buckeyes made 11 three-pointers, marking their fourth game this season with 10 or more three-point field goals.