By Danielle Daniels

3 23 2024

Ohio State vs. Virginia Tech
Date: March 23, 2024
Time: 7 p.m.
Venue: Value City Arena – Columbus, Ohio
Watch: ESPN+
Listen: Ohio State Radio Network from Learfield
Live Stats: OhioStateBuckeyes.com
Tournament Central: NIT Tournament Page
Game Notes: Ohio State | Virginia Tech
Rosters: Ohio State | Virginia Tech
Season Stats: Ohio State | Virginia Tech

TICKETS: Tickets are on sale now. Visit TicketMaster.com or call the Ohio State Athletics Ticket Office in the Schottenstein Center at 1-800-GOBUCKS.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State remains at home and will host the ACC’s Virginia Tech on Saturday evening in the second round of the NIT. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be streamed on ESPN+. Doug Sherman and Scott Williams will call the action.

• This will be the seventh overall meeting between Ohio State and Virginia Tech and the first in postseason play. The Hokies won the first four games in the series and Ohio State has won each of the last two. The most recent meeting was a 69-56 Ohio State win in Columbus in the 2005 ACC/Big Ten Challenge. J.J. Sullinger led the Buckeyes with 14 points and nine rebounds while Terence Dials added 11 points and seven rebounds.
• Ohio State opened the tournament with an 88-83 victory on Tuesday night over a feisty Cornell squad. Jamison Battle and Roddy Gayle Jr. each finished with 17 points while Felix Okpara scored a career-high 16 points and Devin Royal added 13 points. The Buckeyes made 11 three-pointers, including a couple of big ones down the stretch and dished-out 22 assists on the night. Battle’s three-pointer with 43 seconds left turned a two-point deficit into an 82-81 lead and the Buckeyes never trailed the rest of the way.
• With the win, the Buckeyes are now 20-8 all-time in the NIT, including 12-3 at home.
• Jamison Battle comes into the game on Saturday just 27 points shy of 2,000 in his career. He has 494 points this season and could join Bruce Thornton as a 500-point scorer. Thornton, who has 525 points this year, is the 37th different Buckeye with 500 points in a single season.
• If Battle reaches the 500-point mark, it would mark the first time since the 2011-12 season in which multiple Buckeyes scored 500 points in the same season. Jared Sullinger, Deshaun Thomas and William Buford all reached the mark in the Final Four season.
• Bruce Thornton has dished-out 29 assists and has just six turnovers in the last four games. He leads the Big Ten and is second nationally with a 3.78 assist-to-turnover ratio.
• Felix Okpara is one of two players nationally with 60 or more blocks, who have blocked a shot in every game this season. He has a current streak of 40 consecutive games with at least one blocked shot dating back to last season. That matches Ken Johnson, the Big Ten’s all-time blocked shots leader, for the longest streak by a Buckeye in the last 30 years.
• Virginia Tech took down Richmond 74-58 on Tuesday evening and comes to Columbus with a record of 19-14. Sean Padulla leads the team in scoring at 16.4 ppg and has dished-out 140 assists.

#GoBucks

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