Ohio State coach Jake Diebler likes where his team stands entering a huge regular-season finale on Saturday when it hosts equally desperate Indiana in Columbus.
“Our guys are consumed with the right stuff right now,” Diebler said. “They’re doing a great job keeping that tunnel vision on what matters most.”
Considering what the Buckeyes (19-11, 11-8 Big Ten Conference) accomplished Wednesday night at Penn State, it’s hard to disagree. After a major upset of Purdue on Sunday gave their NCAA Tournament resume a much-needed boost, they avoided a possible land mine and routed the Nittany Lions 94-62.
John Mobley Jr. led the charge by scoring a career-high-tying 28 points, hitting his last eight 3-point attempts. As a team, Ohio State was 16 of 23 from distance (69.6%), its best effort percentage-wise since going 14 of 15 in a 2011 blowout of Wisconsin.
Bruce Thornton added 18 for the Buckeyes, which puts him in position to become the program’s all-time leading scorer on his senior day. Thornton, who has rolled up 2,085 points, is 12 points from passing Dennis Hopson.
Meanwhile, Indiana (18-12, 9-10) took care of business on Wednesday night as well by walloping visiting Minnesota, 77-47, to end a four-game losing streak. Sam Alexis scored a season-high 23 points, far above his 8.7 average, and the Hoosiers converted 10 of 24 3-point attempts to get back into the win column.
Coach Darian DeVries has focused on preparing for the next game, no matter the circumstances, and felt his team got the memo.
“My whole message was to keep preparing and put yourself in the best position possible,” DeVries said. “We were able to complete the full 40 minutes (Wednesday). We moved it and shared it offensively, and got some real good looks.”
Indiana drew 17 assists on 31 buckets and put four players in double figures. That included leading scorer Lamar Wilkerson (21.1 ppg), who hit for 16 on 6-for-11 shooting. That marked his fewest points and shot attempts since Jan. 20 at Michigan.
Barring an instant rematch at next week’s conference tournament, this will be the only meeting of the season between the teams.
