(Chicago, IL) — 8 seeded Ohio St. eliminated 9 seeded Iowa in the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament 72-69 on Thursday.
The Buckeyes led 34-30 at the half and built a 16 point lead in the 2nd half. Trailing 51-35, Tate Sage hit a three pointer for the Hawkeyes and after a Brendan Housen steal, Cam Manyawu dunked one home to cut the lead to 11. Ohio St. pushed the lead back to 15 but Iowa went on a 8-0 run. John Mobley Jr. hit a triple for OSU at the 6:11 mark and the Buckeyes were back up by 11 64-53. An 8-2 Iowa run ended with a Alvaro Folgueiras three to cut the lead to 68-62 with 3:33 remaining. After a Devin Royal lay-up, Fogueiras hit another triple; Tavion Banks got a block and made a dunk on the other end and Ohio St. led 70-67 with 1:22 to go.
Bruce Thornton missed a floater in the lane for the Buckeyes and Bennett Stirtz made two free throws to cut the lead down to just one point with 38 seconds left. That’s where it stopped. The Buckeyes got a key offensive rebound off a Thornton miss and Mobley converted two free throws. Iowa missed two three pointers to force overtime and Ohio St. advanced.
Stirtz was the only player in double figures for Iowa (21-12) with 17 points. Banks and Manyawu each had 9 points and Koch and Folgueiras each added 8. Iowa actually shot 50 percent from the field and were 10-21 on their threes.
Ohio St. (21-11) shot 55 percent from the field but were only 6-20 on their threes. Thornton led the Buckeyes with 24 points and they will face the winner of Wisconsin and Washington in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Iowa now waits to find out its NCAA Tournament fate with the field being selected on Sunday.
