Game-Winning Tanner Holden Buzzer-Beater Gives Ohio State 67-66 Win Over Rutgers

In his first points of the night, the Wright State transfer hit a buzzer-hitting 3-pointer to give Ohio State a 67–66 victory over Rutgers in the Buckeyes’ Big 10 opener.

Ohio State trailed by two points after Rutgers’ Caleb McConnell missed a free throw.The Buckeyes had a chance to tie or win with five seconds remaining. Holden’s contested heave from long range sent the Columbus crowd into a frenzy as he cemented a walk-off victory for Ohio State.

WALK-OFF 3 FOR @OhioStateHoops pic.twitter.com/fprzioLyeD

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) December 9, 2022

The 25th-ranked Scarlett & Gray defeated the Scarlet Knights in the final seconds of their conference opener win over the Rutgers team, which had just pulled off a strong win over then No. 2. 10 Indiana. Ohio State extended the home winning streak to his fifth straight with Schottenstein another success at his center.

Ohio State led all but 1:42 of the first half, but after losing momentum late in the early laps, Rutgers capitalized to gain multiple leads in the final frame. Both sides took a slight advantage in the second half, with little time remaining, but the Buckeyes made the biggest play.

Zedd Key and Bryce Sensarbaugh, who had their first college starts alongside Buckeyes Isaac Riquelé, went offensively at Ohio State, scoring 30-plus points combined. Key scored 22 points and had 14 rebounds, while Sensabo scored 13 points.

first half

It was the early Zed Key Show. The Buckeye big man scored his 13th of his 24th in Ohio State’s first, and on 7-for-9 shooting he advanced to halftime on 15. Key also led the Buckeyes to his 31–29 lead at the intermission, recording eight rebounds and he had two assists.

But Ohio State needed Key’s energy to stem the nascent Scarlet Knight tide. With Rutgers notching his 9-0 record on his third consecutive shot-three, the Knights took his 11-5 lead in first media his timeouts, but the Buckeyes won the first. Of his seven shots he only hit two.

However, the pause in action was just what the Buckeyes needed as Ohio State responded quickly from a timeout to start a 14–0 run and regain the lead. The Buckeyes in that stretch he knocked down two of his 3-pointers, and Keys forced Scarlett into a timeout on his Knight at 14:06, of which his one-handed putback included his dunk. Scored his 6 points myself.

Ohio State took a 19-11 lead before Rutgers stopped the bleeding with a triple in the fourth of the first half, ending the first half at 12:21. By the 4:06 mark, his 3 on Brice Sensabaugh gave Ohio State his double-digit lead for the first time of the night, 31-20.

But Rutgers quickly came back with a run of his own, rattling off the final nine points of the half and heading into the locker room with momentum.

The Buckeyes maintained a 19-12 lead on the grass, edged Rutgers 18-12 in the paint, and made nine more free throws than the Scarlet Knights. But while Rutgers hit five of his last seven shots in the half, Ohio State only knocked down three of his last ten shots.

Latter half

The Rutgers tied the game on their first shot of the second half, and the Buckeyes hit three of their next four shots after that, but the Scarlet Knights scored six consecutive points (all layups or dunks) and finished first. got the first lead early on. Half at 13:10.

Ohio State held a step lead for the next few minutes, but Rutgers found success inside and tied the game repeatedly as they began to surge in points on the paint difference.

A steal in the backcourt by Rutgers forward Andre Hyatt led to a transition jumper that gave the Scarlet Knights a two-point lead before a media timeout of less than seven minutes. Justice Swing put him back on the lead for the Buckeyes with a 3-pointer at the 5:19 mark, but Rutgers big man Clifford Omorui put things back together just 34 seconds later with a one-he dunk. I turned it over. Omorui only scored 2 points in the first half, but scored in double digits in the 20th minute of the second half.

With less than three minutes remaining, the Buckeyes and Scarlet Knights were tied at 59 each. But Ohio State, given a chance to take the lead, whistled a moving screen that gave the ball back to Rutgers. Scarlett his Knights made a layup to take the lead again on the next possession.

An internal key hook then tied things up, but Rutgers answered again, and Bruce Thornton only hit one of the two free throws that would have kept the stalemate with 56 seconds remaining.

Down by one with just 23.7 seconds remaining, a potential game-winner Censorbow was blocked and Rutgers went up by three with two free throws at the other end. But after Rutgers trailed him by two with five seconds remaining, Holden’s buzzer-beater capped off the show and the home crowd rose to their feet in celebration.

game notes

• Ohio State has won 10 of its 14 previous meetings with Rutgers dating back to 1978.

• The Scarlet Knights played their only match last year against the Buckeyes on February 9, 2022, 66-64 in New Jersey.

• In each of the last four meetings between Ohio and Rutgers, including Thursday’s contest, at least one of two programs has been ranked in the AP Top 25.

• Ohio National Guard’s Eugene Brown (concussion) has missed nine straight games since the start of the year.

• Starting guard Isaac Rikekele missed the first game of the season to attend family matters in his home state of Texas.

• In place of Likekele, freshman Brice Sensabaugh made his first start at college alongside Bruce Thornton, Sean McNeil, Justice Sueing and Zed Key.

• Rutgers freshman Antoine Woolfolk is from Cleveland, Ohio, and Caleb McConnell, a senior from Florida, played high school basketball at Spire Academy in Geneva, Ohio.

• Chris Holtman held a record of 4-1 in his first five Big Ten openers as head coach at Ohio State.