Buckeyes Beaten in Bloomington

In the past couple of seasons, when the Ohio State Buckeyes traveled to Bloomington, Indiana to take on the hometown Hoosiers, you could virtually pencil in a W.

However, this season, the 2nd ranked Buckeyes visited Assembly Hall to take on a 15th ranked Indiana squad with a 12-1 record coming off a buzzer-beating victory over the then No. 1 ranked Kentucky Wildcats just three weeks prior.

Indiana is beginning to make a habit of beating highly ranked teams as they took care of the Buckeyes in a 74-70 victory.

Victor Oladipo scored the go-ahead basket on a fast-break layup with 36 seconds left for the Hoosiers to seal the upset win.

For the Buckeyes (13-2, 1-1), Aaron Craft led the team with 16 points while Indiana held Jared Sullinger to a modest 15 points and nine rebounds. Indiana also did a solid job on William Buford who finished with just 12 points and missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer with about 5 seconds to play.

Indiana was led by Jordan Hulls who bucketed a game-high 17 points, and Verdell Jones, who added 14 points.

Ohio State, which spent most of the game in foul trouble, never really looked like the nation's second best team.

Sullinger, Buford and Deshaun Thomas combined to play only 29 minutes in the first half after each picked up their second fouls. Buford picked up two more in the first few minutes of the second half, and Thomas picked up his third with over 17 minutes left in the game leaving the Buckeyes handicapped on the offensive end.

Furthermore, the foul trouble forced Buckeyes Head Coach Thad Matta to mix-and-match his rotations.

"It was obviously a difficult challenge," said Matta. "I thought we put ourselves in a pretty decent position."

The Buckeyes were in position to steal a win as they rallied from a 33-32 halftime deficit to take a 44-41 lead in the second half.

But, the Hoosiers fought back, and when Lenzelle Smith Jr. made Ohio State's first 3-pointer of the game, to give the Buckeyes a 51-47 lead with 10:39 to go, Indiana answered with four straight points to tie the ballgame.

The Hoosiers seemed to have an answer all night.

In the final six minutes, there were 10 ties or lead changes, including a three-point play from Sullinger that gave Ohio State a 68-67 lead while sending Indiana's stud big man, Cody Zeller, to the bench after fouling out.

Jones answered with a layup for the Hoosiers, and Thomas countered with a 15-footer to give Ohio State a 70-69 lead.

From that point on, it was all about defense.

The Hoosiers didn't give up another point and took advantage after forcing another Buckeye turnover. Hulls deflected the pass, Jones picked it off and tossed it to Oladipo for the aforementioned game-winning layup with 36 seconds left to make it 71-70.

Indiana closed out the victory with a free throw from Hulls, Christian Watford's rebound of Buford's errant shot and two more free throws from Watford.

The Hoosiers will look to keep their winning ways going as they host the Michigan Wolverines on Thursday while the Buckeyes aim to get back on track traveling to Iowa to face the Hawkeyes.

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