JANUARY 27, 2022

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – On a night when E.J. Liddell reached the 1,000-point plateau and head coach Chris Holtmann notches his 100^th win at Ohio State, the Buckeyes were dominant on the glass and pulled-out a gritty 75-64 victory at Minnesota.

The win pushes the Buckeyes’ record to 13-4 and 6-2 in Big Ten play while Minnesota falls to 11-6 and 2-6.

Liddell had another tremendous night, leading the team with 23 points, a career-high 15 rebounds and five assists. It was his fourth double-double of the season. His three-point play early in the second half took him over 1,000 career points, becoming the 60^th Buckeye in program history to reach the milestone.

Graduate forward Kyle Young also played extremely well, scoring 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting with four rebounds and four assists. Zed Key scored 12 points and pulled-down eight rebounds and Malaki Branham was the fourth Buckeye in double figures with 11 points.

The key difference in the game was the Buckeyes work on the glass. They held a 48-22 rebounding edge and had 20 offensive rebounds. Those 20 offensive rebounds led to 27 second chance points compared to just six for Minnesota.

Branham was huge in the first half for the Buckeyes, scoring all 11 of his points in the opening 20 minutes. His three-pointer gave the Buckeyes the largest lead for either side in the first half of 11-6. There were 11 lead changes in the first half alone and the Buckeyes led by just two, 32-30, at the break.

OSU started the second half on a 16-7 run with half of those points from coming Young. That built a 48-37 lead and Minnesota never really made a push the rest of the way. After closing the gap to six, three-consecutive Buckeye buckets shoved the lead back out to double digits and Cedric Russell’s second three-pointer of the half gave the Buckeyes their largest lead of the night at 71-57 with under seven minutes to play.

Notes

• E.J. Liddell recorded the 1,000^th point of his career on a three-point play at the start of the second half.
• Liddell notched his second-consecutive double-double and the fourth of the season with 23 points and a career-high 15 rebounds.
• Kyle Young scored eight of his 14 points in the second half. The 14 points were the most since he scored a career-high 18 against Towson on Dec. 8.
• Jimmy Sotos dished-out three assists and has 12 total assists in the last two games.
• Meechie Johnson Jr. made his second start of the season and the second of his career. He finished with three points but had three assists and just one turnover in a career-high 29 minutes.
• The Buckeyes started two freshmen (Meechie Johnson Jr. and Malaki Branham) in the backcourt for the first time since the 1995-96 season when freshman Jami Bosley and Damon Stringer both started
• Jamari Wheeler missed the game with a foot injury. It was the first game he missed in his collegiate career as he had played in 143 consecutive games.
• The Buckeyes had 20 offensive rebounds on the night. The last time they had 20 offensive rebounds in a Big Ten game was also at Minnesota in an 82-69 win on Feb. 6, 2011.
• Ohio State committed a season-low six turnovers

Up Next

The Buckeyes remain on the road this weekend when they travel to No. 6 Purdue on Sunday. Tip-off is set for Noon on CBS.

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COURTESY OSU ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS