Ohio State rebounds with blowout of No. 4 Kentucky

NEW YORK – The Ohio State men’s basketball team entered this week at a pivotal point in its season.

The Buckeyes were coming off a 38-point loss to Auburn last weekend, their third loss in four games. In addition to the struggles on the field, Ohio State announced Tuesday that senior guard Meechie Johnson, who started the first 10 games of the season, took a leave of absence for personal reasons.

It was nothing, a trip to New York to meet red-hot no. 4, Kentucky couldn’t solve as Ohio State upset the Wildcats, 85-65, in the second game of the CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

Ohio State guard Bruce Thornton led the way with 30 points, setting the tone early with continued aggressive drives to the rim and then making big shots in the second half. Kentucky didn’t have an answer for Thornton’s ability to get downfield and finish in traffic; he had an answer every time the Wildcats looked to cut into the lead in the second half.

The Buckeyes, who improved to 8-4, took control late in the first half, and Kentucky didn’t get within six points the rest of the game.

“I feel like our preparation the last few days and how it’s presented (to) the team has been great,” Thornton said. “We understood the game plan with Kentucky, understood we could get downhill after the guards. The game opened up … and we were able to get downhill.”

Freshman guard John Mobley entered Saturday as one of the elite 3-point shooters in the country, but went just 1-for-8 from behind the arc. Like Thornton, however, he was able to get to the basket and made a career-high four 2-pointers.

“I feel like we just kept attacking,” Mobley said. “That was the game plan, just keep attacking. We were very connected on offense, so we definitely just kept attacking, stuck to the game plan.”

The return of Aaron Bradshaw and Ques Glover, two players who missed the last month for various reasons, provided a significant boost for Jake Diebler’s team.

Bradshaw, who transferred to Ohio State from Kentucky last spring, had missed the last seven games due to a university investigation. He came off the bench Saturday to score 11 points and was a key factor on the rim defensively. Glover, who signed briefly for Mark Pope at BYU in 2023, was out the last eight games with an ankle injury — and he came off the bench to score nine points.

“I thought it was a significant boost,” Diebler said. “We wanted going into this year, depth would be a real strength for us, and we haven’t had the opportunity to play with that depth much of this year. It’s also affected training and building because there’s still a lot new in this program New staff, new players, new system and it has affected our growth a little bit.

“But it was nice to have some depth tonight and those guys definitely stepped up.”

Kentucky lost for just the second time all season, snapping a three-game winning streak that included an overtime win over Gonzaga in Seattle and a home win over rival Louisville last weekend. The Wildcats, one of the top perimeter shooting teams in the country, had their worst shooting night of the season going just 4-for-22 from the 3-point line. Perhaps more importantly, they also really struggled to finish at the rim, shooting 37.1% inside the arc and just 7-for-23 on layups.

“I think we kind of knew going into the game that they helped a lot, especially when we got into the paint,” Kentucky big man Andrew Carr said. “It felt like we probably could have done a better job when things weren’t going our way to play off two feet, go back to the basics of the game … Definitely something to learn and improve on.”

“There were a lot of possessions that our guys wish they could get back,” Pope added.

Kentucky has now allowed at least one point per game. possession in each of its last five games after not allowing any of its first seven opponents — including Duke — to reach that mark. Teams are shooting nearly 55% from inside the arc against Kentucky in those five games.

On the other end, Kentucky’s two worst offensive performances — and two worst 3-point shooting performances — have come in its two losses. During the five-game span, the Wildcats are shooting 31% from 3 and rank No. 175 in 3-point attempt rate. For context, Pope’s BYU team last season ranked fourth nationally in 3-point attempt rate.

The Wildcats (10-2) have 10 days off before hosting Brown on New Year’s Eve and then going straight into SEC play: home vs. Florida, at Georgia, at Mississippi State, home vs. Texas A&M, home vs. Alabama.

“I know these guys,” Pope said. “They’re going to come in and — it’s not going to be just empty feelings. It’s going to be that we’re going to get better and these guys are going to get better and we’ve just got to keep trusting what we’re doing. We had some defensive struggles tonight and then we just fell apart offensively and we just went to our standard and our standard isn’t right yet our standard is still bad habits.

“But these guys are going to respond beautifully because they’re incredible young men and they’re going to come back and work like crazy and they know who they represent and how much it means and it’s incredibly painful to lose this game. But they will answer.”