COLUMBUS, Ohio—Bruce Thornton scored a game-high 25 points and Ohio State used a 15-0 first half run and 47.0 percent field goal shooting to hand the Central Michigan Men’s Basketball team a 88-61 loss Wednesday night at Value City Arena. The decision drops Central Michigan to 2-5 overall, while Ohio State improves to 6-1.
The host Buckeyes, coming off three straight victories to claim the Emerald Coast Classic, converted 31 of 66 field goals and scored 46 points in the paint, hit seven 3-pointers, outrebounded CMU 44-30 and forced CMU into 15 turnovers.
Thornton scored 19 of his 25 points in the first half. He converted nine of 14 field goals and 3-7 3-pointers. Felix Okpara scored 14 points on 6-6 shooting along with nine rebounds, Jamison Battle added 12 points and eight rebounds, while Roddy Gayle, Jr. and Devin Royal both finished with 11 points.
Central Michigan was led by Jemal Davis’ career-high 15 points off the bench. Davis set career-highs for scoring (15 points) and 3-point field goals made (two). Paul McMillan IV came off the bench to register his third double figure scoring game with 12 points (5-9 FG) and Brian Taylor added his third straight double figure scoring game with 12 points, along with five rebounds. Anthony Pritchard finished with nine points and four assists before fouling out and Derrick Butler added eight points in this first career start. Central Michigan was without two starters in Markus Harding and Aidan Rubio.
CMU was looking for its second consecutive victory over a Big Ten opponent as it defeated Michigan last year in late December.
With Ohio State up one point, 22-21, the Buckeyes put together a 15-0 run. Thornton started the run with seven straight points as he converted two pull-up jumpers and a 3-pointer. Okpara followed with two free throws, Okpara scored on an alley-oop dunk, Dale Bonner hit two free throws and Okpara scored on another dunk before CMU’s Pritchard ended the run with a jumper.
In the first half, OSU shot 55.6 percent (16-27) from the floor, while Bruce Thornton scored 19 first half points on 7-9 shooting and 3-5 3-point shooting. CMU hit four 3-pointers in the first half but shot just 38.7 percent (12-31) in the first 20 minutes.
Ohio State opened the second half on a 9-0 run to take a 50-29 lead on a Jamison Battle 3-pointer with 16:41 to play. The Buckeyes led by as many as 30 points (64-34) with 11:31 to play.
CMU led 12-11 early in the first half. The Chippewas put together several second half runs and cut the deficit down to 17 points.
Central Michigan returns home to host Valparaiso on Wednesday, Dec. 6. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. at McGuirk Arena.
—CMU—