Northwestern University Athletics
Ohio State In Review
1/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
They all hurt. That was true of the overtime loss at Michigan State, and of the late loss at home to Illinois, and of the two-point loss at Michigan that was not decided until Bryant McIntosh's last-second shot found iron instead of net. But this one, this Thursday night loss at Welsh-Ryan to Ohio State, it was as gut wrenching as a sucker punch, as searing as a branding iron, as heart breaking as seeing your best buddy making out with your former girl friend. "I'm really proud of my team," an emotional Chris Collins would later say in the brief comments that opened his post-game press conference, and then came the measured words that revealed all that was roiling inside of him.
"They fought through a lot of things. They fought through a lot of things," he said here. "We were up big early. Withstood their run. They got up 11. We kept fighting. I think you guys see we have a fighting group. Fighting through a lot of things. Fighting through a lot of things. So. I'm open for questions."
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The final round of this fight began with just under four minutes remaining. That is when JerShon Cobb accepted a pass from Tre Demps and, from deep in the right corner, dropped the three that finally pulled the `Cats clear of their hole and tied this one up at 60.
They had, way back when the opening bell sounded, flurried furiously and were up nine with just over nine minutes gone. Here Scottie Lindsey drove hard and offered a reverse layup that would push their lead to 11, but State forward Sam Thompson snuffed it after it kissed glass. Collins screamed for goal-tending, but the call did not come, and now the Buckeyes went on a tear that gave them the lead less than three minutes later.
Their heavy hitter here, as he was throughout the night, was the freshman guard D'Angelo Russell, who would end with 33 points while going 12-of-17 overall and six-of-11 on his threes. Demps would try to corral him, and so too would McIntosh and Sanjay Lumpkin and Vic Law, but this evening he frolicked in that magical zone enjoyed by only a special few. "We knew he was going to score," Collins would say when asked about using multiple defenders on him.
"What we were trying to do is make him be a high-volume shooter. LIke the other night against Michigan, (Caris) LeVert got 18 points, but it took him 19 shots to get them. Our goal with a really good scorer is to try to have a one-to-one ratio. We didn't do that. He got 30-something points on 17 shots. He shot an incredible percentage. He hit some incredible shots. The kid's a hell of a player. Tip your cap to him. Great player."
He was clearly the best player on the court this night, but the `Cats countered with contributions from a cornucopia of performers. McIntosh (12 points) and Demps (14) and Alex Olah (16) all scored in double figures, and Dave Sobolewski came off the bench to chip in a pair of big threes. Cobb, despite his lingering injuries, pushed himself through 23 minutes and added five points and five rebounds and a team-high (along with Demps) four assists, and an energized Law grabbed a team-high (along with Olah) six rebounds to go with his five points.
Still, once they lost the lead at 6:15 of the first half, they could never regain it. But now, after Cobb's three, they were at last even with the Buckeyes with 3:54 left in this fight's final round.
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The Buckeyes, naturally enough, turned to Russell, and just 20 seconds later he went up for a three. Demps was in his grille, was close enough to him to smell his breath, but Russell's shot fell through and Demps was left to shrug in resignation. "I felt on that possession, I tried to fight over a screen, I fought over it," he later said. "Then he iso-d me. I got a hand up. He fell back a little bit and he still made it.
"That was my reaction. There's nothing you can really do. It's hard to stop a guy if he hits shots like that. Some of the shots he was hitting, they're the shots you want somebody to take. He's a great player. He's going to make a lot of money playing in the NBA. You've got to tip your hat to him."
But the `Cats would not do that now. They would instead attack right back, would attack with Demps going up the gut and offering a layup that Buckeye Shannon Scott would block after it kissed glass. Again Collins screamed for goal tending, and again no goal tending was called, and seconds later -- during a timeout -- there he was in the face of an official, as close to him as Demps had earlier been to Russell. "I saw everything you guys saw. I saw everything you guys saw," he later said when asked about the play. "Somebody's got to be held accountable for it, and I know it's not going to be me. But I saw everything you guys saw."
And his reaction to the play?
"I'm fighting for my guys, man. I'm a fighter. My team's a fighter. We're fighting. Just a fighter, man. What I try to do is give my team what my team needs. And my team needed my fight. They needed my energy. They needed it. We were getting a little tired. We were trying to come back ... I felt tonight my team needed my fight. It was fun fighting with those guys."
Those guys fought even now, after being denied a basket, and they continued to fight on even after one more Russell three pushed the Buckeyes' lead to six at 1:50. Olah dropped a pair of foul shots, and Law's defense stymied Russell, and now came this in the final 60 seconds. MacIntosh missed a three. The Buckeyes' Scott missed a front end. Cobb missed a three. The Buckeyes' Marc Loving missed a front end. McIntosh committed a turnover after getting trapped in the left corner. ("That was a tough one," Collins later said. "I should have helped him there when he got in trouble. I take that on me. We had a time out.")
Lindsey harassed Thompson on the Buckeyes' in-bound play and Law stole his pass to Kam Williams. Lindsey missed a driving layup, McIntosh rebounded and Demps missed a layup. Scott again missed the front end. McIntosh drove the left baseline for the layup that left the `Cats down two at :07.9. Russell hit a pair of free throws at :06.6 to put the Buckeyes up four; Demps kissed in a long three at :01.8 to cut it to one; and finally, with just nine-tenths of a second remaining, Russell hit one free throw, intentionally missed the second and the buzzer sounded before the `Cats could throw up even a desperation shot.
"I think we're playing better and better basketball every time we play," Demps would soon say when asked the `Cats reaction to absorbing yet one-more sucker punch. "You know, it's a play here and there. Obviously, we're probably not going to get a lot of the 50-50 calls. That's just the way it is. (But) I think we're playing real good basketball, spirited basketball. It's going to pay off at some point."
"We're playing great, man. We're playing great," Collins finally said. "I feel for our guys. It's a tough thing going to the well when you're not getting the results you deserve ... I feel for our guys. It's just tough to go into that locker room knowing you fought so hard and you came up just a little bit short."
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