Indiana basketball ends two-game skid with overtime win over OSU

On January 18, 2025By Littum

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Indiana basketball and Ohio State went down to the wire for the second year in a row at the Schottenstein Center.

The Buckeyes erased a 10-point lead in the final five minutes and John Mobley Jr. hit a 3-pointer to force overtime with 40 seconds left.

After four lead changes, Indiana forward Luke Goode capped a career night with the 3-pointer with 1:07 left on the clock in overtime to help his team escape with a 77-76 victory. It was a much-needed win for a Hoosiers (14-5; 5-3 Big Ten) team that had been blown out in their previous two games.

Goode, who had a career-high 23 points, had the hot hand to start the second half, and his energy gave IU a much-needed boost. He scored 11 points in less than eight minutes after halftime and hit three straight 3-point attempts to put IU back on top, 43-41, with 15:08 to go after trailing for nearly 18 minutes.

Ohio State (10-8; 2-5) initially kept pace mostly thanks to Mobley Jr. — all five of his 3-pointers came in the second half — but the Hoosiers pushed the lead to double digits with Trey Galloway and Kanaan Carlyle knocking down clutch shots.

Carlyle was as focused and determined as he has been all season. He has remained an asset on defense through a season-long shooting slump, but he looked more like the excellent two-way player he was at Stanford on Friday night.

He attacked the rim and scored on a series of acrobatic layups over the final 10 minutes to finish with 12 points, his first game in double figures since IU’s Nov. 28 loss to Gonzaga. He was also assigned to guard OSU’s leading scorer Bruce Thornton, who was his former high school teammate.

Indiana basketball was shorthanded in Columbus

Malik Reneau (knee) missed his fifth straight game Friday night, and Bryson Tucker joined him on the injury report with an apparent finger injury. He made the trip to Columbus, but sat out and had a brace on his right little finger.

That left IU with nine scholarship players dressed, and one of them was the oft-injured Jakai Newton. He has been listed on the injury report for most of the season and has played just 18 total minutes in four games.

Indiana also played much of the first half without starting point guard Myles Rice, who picked up two fouls in the first five minutes of the game and went straight to the bench for the rest of the half.

He had to exit after picking up his third foul with 18:06 left in the game.

Indiana basketball’s offensive firepower MIA in the first half against OSU

Indiana was fortunate to only trail 35-29 at halftime against the Buckeyes. The Hoosiers went into halftime 10 of 30 from the field and 1 of 9 from 3-point range. They missed six straight field goal attempts while going the final 4:01 of the half without a made field goal.

Their offense didn’t pack much of a punch beyond running some pick and pop action in the paint for Oumar Ballo. Ohio State didn’t have anyone with the size to match up with the 7-foot-0, 260-pound center and the 10 points he scored in the half all came in the paint.

He finished the game with 21 points and 15 rebounds for his third consecutive double-double and fifth in six games.

Mackenzie Mgbako (0 for 3 in the first half) and played limited minutes in the second half for the fourth straight game. He also did not play in overtime and finished the game with six points.

Michael Niziolek is an Indiana reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read his full coverage by clicking here.