Jamison Battle leads Ohio State past Nebraska
Adam Jardy
COLUMBUS — Jamison Battle wasn’t about to just let his play do the talking.
Thursday night at Value City Arena, Battle could’ve pointed to the scoreboard, the final stat sheet and strutted out of the arena without needing to say anything else. With Ohio State missing its captain and leading scorer in Bruce Thornton, Battle poured in a season-high 32 points to lead the suddenly surging Buckeyes past Nebraska, 78-69, in front of 13,090 fans.
It wasn’t just that Battle rained down three 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the game, or that he drew five shooting fouls to go 10 for 10 from the line, or that he hit five of six shots from inside the 3-point line. From the jump, this was a different Battle than the one the Buckeyes have seen this year.
After his second 3-pointer gave him Ohio State’s first eight points, he turned toward the sideline and yelled a few words. As the Buckeyes closed out the final minutes, Battle turned toward the student section and demonstratively waved his arms, yelling and thumping his chest. And when teammate Roddy Gayle Jr. was fouled with 57.2 seconds left and the lead at 10 points, the final outcome was so close Battle could taste it.
“I’m him!” he yelled toward the crowd, repeating it at least once before Gayle went to the line to close out Ohio State’s scoring.
Seated in the postgame interview room, Battle spread that line of thinking across the entire roster while nodding to the changing of the calendar.
“You can say ‘I’m him,’ but it’s a collective effort,” Battle said. “I won’t take all the weight on my shoulder. I know this team wants more than to just end the season after the Big Ten Tournament.”
That much is becoming more and more evident with each game the Buckeyes play for interim coach Jake Diebler. Fifteen days after athletic director Gene Smith fired coach Chris Holtmann with six games remaining in his seventh season, Ohio State has won three of four, including a home win against No. 2 Purdue and Sunday’s last-second road win at Michigan State.
Battle had to sit that one out with an ankle injury he played through in a Feb. 22 homecoming loss at Minnesota. With Thornton unavailable due to a migraine, Battle said he wasn’t about to let the Buckeyes slip against a Nebraska team that had won four straight games by double figures and by an average of 18.0 points.
All he did was score the first 11 points of the game to get Ohio State going. He had 17 by halftime and 15 during the second half, helping answer any challenge Nebraska was able to mount, and was on the court for all but 70 seconds.
“There is a sense of urgency,” he said. “I’ve got three guaranteed games left of college basketball. My goal is, we’re going to do whatever it takes to win all those games and maybe even more.”
Those three games include Sunday’s senior day date with Michigan, a March 10 regular-season finale at Rutgers and whatever first game the Buckeyes will play in the Big Ten Tournament. If they beat the Wolverines and the Scarlet Knights, the Buckeyes will almost certainly avoid playing on the first day of the tournament.
Two weeks ago, Ohio State was 14-11 overall, 4-10 in the Big Ten and had lost 10 of its last 13 games. Now the Buckeyes have won three of four, added two Quad 1 wins to their NET ranking and are dreaming of the goals they talked about months ago when the preseason got underway.
“If you look at the calendar, it’s February 29th today,” he said. “Tomorrow is March. The madness begins tomorrow. We’re not ready to go home. That’s the mentality that we have, that March is upon us. Let the madness begin.”