How Thornton still had legs to lead that charge in the last 90 seconds is beyond me.
I think that is exactly why they've had multiple games where they've kinda died right about at the U8. They have little-to-no bench and when it is "Thornton and the Randos" as
@MaximumSam calls it, he just runs out of gas by then. Mobley being out compounds this problem because he was generally our best scoring option outside of Thornton and without him there isn't much.
Just looking at ESPN's "Game Flow" thing:
at MSU on 2/22:
The game was either tied or close with Ohio State usually holding a slight lead until a 45-45 tie with just under 10 minutes to play. Then tOSU more-or-less collapsed in allowing an 18-8 run that give MSU a double-digit lead (their largest of the game) with about 1:30 to go.
vs UVA on 2/14:
Ohio State got a bucket (Thornton) at about 10:00 to go to take a 59-53 lead then didn't score for five full minutes. By the time they scored again it was to tie it up at 61 with about 5 minutes to play but tOSU never led again.
at M on 1/23:
Close game the whole way up through tOSU's last lead at 48-47 with just under 11 to play then tOSU stalled and M took off for a 15 point lead of 71-56 lead with just over 3 minutes to play.
at UDub on 1/11:
Ohio State was within 1 with just over 7 to play in what had been a close, back-and-forth game to that point but from there the Huskies ran away and assumed their largest lead (8) with 1:50 to go.
vs Nebraska on 1/5:
Although they trailed for almost the entire game, Ohio State had a three point lead at 53-50 with about 8 and a half minutes to go but only scored 5 points over the next ~6 minutes to fall behind 65-58.
That is half of Ohio State's losses.
