DAYTON – The white, Nike T-shirts were the same regardless of bench on Sunday evening inside UD Arena.
“TAKE HOPE TO THE HOOP,” they read, a nod to why the Ohio State and Dayton men’s basketball teams were here. As part of an effort to raise awareness for mental health initiatives, the two Ohio rivals agreed to play on Dayton’s home court in a charity exhibition game. The points won’t count for anything. Both coaches agreed that no players could foul out. Substitutions were liberal, both Chris Holtmann and Anthony Grant promised.
Then it was time to take the ball to the hoop. It had been almost 35 years since the Buckeyes played the Flyers on their home court, and the sold-out crowd that awaited them included Ohio’s governor, Mike DeWine.
In the end, it was Ohio State that took it to the hoop with better results more often, and the Buckeyes overcame an unconscious first half from Dayton’s Enoch Cheeks and a turnover-prone second-half spell to prevail, 78-70, in the charity exhibition game.
Ahead by three at the half, the Buckeyes pushed it to a game-high nine-point advantage on a three-point play from Bruce Thornton just before the under-4 media timeout when freshman Devin Royal was stripped on a shot attempt on the right block. It started a sequence of seven possessions that saw Ohio State turn it over six times, two of which came against Dayton’s full-court pressure, as the Flyers steadily chipped away.
But after Dayton’s Javon Bennett missed a go-ahead 3-point attempt, the Buckeyes quickly pushed the ball in transition and found guard Roddy Gayle on the right wing. With his eyes locked on the rim, Gayle swished the attempt, putting Ohio State back ahead with 12:09 to play. Thornton followed with a 3 of his own, then a running jumper, and the 8-0 run put all Dayton hopes to bed.
The Flyers were picked to win the Atlantic 10 in the league’s preseason poll, while Ohio State was picked to finish seventh in the Big Ten in the unofficial official media poll conducted jointly by The Dispatch and The Athletic.
All 11 available Ohio State scholarship players saw action. Freshmen Taison Chatman (knee surgery) and Austin Parks (returning from preseason injury) were the only two not to play.
Thornton led the Buckeyes with 21 points. Minnesota transfer Jamison Battle scored 15 points and Gayle had 12.
Each seat was adorned with a giveaway white T-shirt commemorating the purpose of the event. The LED scoreboard along the scorers’ table, as well as the ribbons bisecting the lower and upper sections of the arena, directed fans to the National Alliance on Mental Illness website, the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline and other similar causes. Half an hour before tip, Dayton’s official Twitter page posted a statement that its in-game posting would be about mental health awareness, not game statistics or observations.
As pregame introductions got underway, the Red Scare student section unfurled a banner reading “THANK YOU BUCKEYES” accompanied by a green ribbon signifying mental health awareness.
Even the in-game timeouts featured videos discussing the topic of the night with Ohio State’s Evan Mahaffey and Ryan Shazier included. In all, Dayton said it raised somewhere north of $500,000 for mental health initiatives with the weekend’s events.
When it came time to play, Ohio State opened with Thornton, Gayle Jr., Jamison Battle, Evan Mahaffey and Felix Okpara as starters, a different lineup than the one that would open the second half. Okpara won the opening tip, but the Buckeyes went empty on their first three possessions with stagnant ball movement befitting an early-preseason scrimmage before Mahaffey bailed them out with a deep jumper late in the shot clock to make it a 6-2 Flyers lead.
That bucket ignited Ohio State, which then scored on eight straight possessions, the final three of which were consecutive Thornton 3-pointers and a short Thornton jumper from the left baseline. That run only gave the Buckeyes a 20-16 lead, though, as Dayton’s offensive rebounding and 3-point shooting allowed the Flyers to keep pace. No team built a first-half lead of more than six points, and that was when the Flyers opened with 3-pointers on their first two possessions.
Dayton pushed its lead to 29-25 with about seven minutes left in the half, but an 11-3 Ohio State run buoyed by consecutive swished 3-pointers from Battle put the visitors back ahead. In the final 20 seconds, Ohio State’s Devin Royal ripped the ball from Petras Padegimas in the backcourt and fed classmate Scotty Middleton for a layup, only to have Dayton’s DaRon Holmes II score in the paint with a second remaining to set the halftime score at 42-39. Holmes would sit for the final 16:03.
Nine Buckeyes saw first-half playing time. Gayle led the way with 17 minutes and 9 points while Thornton had 10 points in 16 minutes. The star of the half, though, was Dayton’s Enoch Cheeks, who went into the locker room with 17 points on perfect 6 for 6 shooting including five 3-point attempts.
The big question now: will these teams meet again in the regular season one day?
@AdamJardy