Bruce Thornton scored 25 points, Meechie Johnson had 17 and five other Ohio State scorers were in double figures as the Buckeyes downed Green Bay 102-69 in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday.
John Mobley Jr. scored all 14 of his points in the second half, where the Buckeyes (5-1) outscored Green Bay 60-37.
The Phoenix (2-5) were within 14 points just past the midpoint of the second half before Ohio State exploded for a 20-1 run for a 93-60 lead with 3:27 to go.
Sean Stewart scored 11 points, while Micah Parrish, Evan Mahaffey and Devin Royal each had 10 for the Buckeyes.
Anthony Roy, the nation’s leading scorer (28.0 points per game entering Monday), scored 30 points for Green Bay by going 10-for-16 from the floor and 8-for-12 from 3-point range.
It was Johnson (15 points) vs. Roy (14) in the first half, and the Buckeyes took a 42-32 lead into the break.
Ohio State was up 39-25 thanks to a 3-pointer by Thornton with 2:47 left until halftime before Roy hit a 3-pointer and consecutive layups by the Phoenix’s Roee Oselka made it 39-32. However, Johnson stopped the bleeding with a trey of his own with 30 seconds remaining.
Another 7-0 spurt from Green Bay had it within eight, 49-41, with 16:34 to play in the second half, and triples from Roy and Foster Wonders shortly after had the Phoenix’s deficit down to six with 15:10 left.
But the Buckeyes recovered with five unanswered points, and they led by at least seven until using their back-breaking run to turn the contest into a rout.
Ohio State center Aaron Bradshaw did not play for the second straight game. The university issued a release prior to a game against Campbell on Friday stating that he was “not currently participating in team activities” and that federal privacy laws prohibited further information.
The Columbus Dispatch reported Monday that Bradshaw is being investigated for a possible domestic incident at his off-campus apartment.
–Field Level Media
