Trevor Thompson scored 16 points and Ohio State survived a furious comeback by Illinois to win in overtime Thursday night, 68-63.
JaQuan Lyle hit a pair of free throws with 14 seconds left in overtime to put the Buckeyes (14-8, 6-3 Big Ten) up 66-63 and Mickey Mitchel followed with a layup to ice the game.
The Illini (10-11, 2-6) trailed by 13 with 6:34 to play but fought back and tied the game at 58-58 on a 3-pointer by Jalen Coleman-Lands with 56.9 seconds left in regulation.
But Illinois scored just five points in overtime.
Keita Bates-Diop finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds for Ohio State and Marc Loving scored 11 with 10 boards.
Kendrick Nunn led Illinois with 24 points, including five 3-pointers.
After Lyle’s free throws, his only points of the night, Illinois had a shot at the tie. But Malcolm Hill lost the ball near the Buckeye basket.
Bates-Diop came up with the ball and fed it to Mitchell, who ran the length of the floor for an easy layup with four seconds to play.
Ohio State hit 39 percent of its shots and Illinois just 32 percent.
But the Buckeyes used a big offensive rebounding edge, 13-5, to put away a dozen second-chance points. Illinois had just four.
In all, the Buckeyes grabbed 51 rebounds to Illinois’ 34.
And the Illini were 18-31 from the free throw line.
Illinois opened the game with a 13-2 lead.
But the Illini had just one field goal, a jumper by Nunn, between the 11:25 mark of the first half and halftime.
Hill finished with 12 points for the Illini and Coleman-Lands 11.
Jae’Sean Tate fouled out in overtime. He finished with nine points.
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