Kyle Young scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half as No. 21 Ohio State defeated Towson 85-74 on Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio.
Justin Ahrens scored 16 points, E.J. Liddell 15 and Zed Key 13 for the Buckeyes (7-2), who have won three straight.
Jason Gibson came off the bench to lead Towson (6-4) with 19 points. Cameron Holden added 16, Nicolas Timberlake had 11 and Antonio Rizzuto scored 10 for the Tigers, who had won three in a row.
Ahrens scored 10 consecutive points for the Buckeyes on three 3-pointers and a free throw as they took a 76-63 lead with 5:24 to play.
He made 5 of 10 3-point attempts for the game despite going just 1 of 3 in the first half.
The Buckeyes shot 57.4 percent (27 of 47) from the floor to Towson’s 43.6 percent (24 of 55).
Ohio State had to battle to take a 33-32 halftime lead after trailing 28-21. Eugene Brown III, who missed the previous four games with a concussion, started the rally with a 3-pointer to make it 28-24. The stretch ended when Key hit a jumper with seven seconds left for the lead.
Key led all scorers in the first half with 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the floor.
Holden almost singlehandedly kept Towson in the game early in the second half, scoring nine of the team’s 11 points to forge a 43-43 tie.
Ohio State then reeled off eight straight points on a layup by Malaki Branham, a Young 3-pointer and a Young three-point play.
Ohio State continued its momentum that began with a 71-66 win against then-No. 1 Duke on Nov. 30 that was followed by a 76-64 victory at Penn State on Sunday in its Big Ten opener.
The Buckeyes return to conference play Saturday, hosting No. 22 Wisconsin, before going outside the league again for a matchup against No. 10 Kentucky in Las Vegas on Dec. 18.
Towson ends its three-game trip at Coppin State on Saturday.
–Field Level Media
