Bruce Thornton and Micah Parrish scored 20 points apiece and Ohio State snapped a three-game losing streak with an 87-82 victory over Southern California on Wednesday night in Big Ten play at Los Angeles.
John Mobley Jr. had 18 points and Devin Royal tallied 13 for the Buckeyes (16-13, 8-10 Big Ten), who trailed for less a minute and a half early in the game behind torrid first-half shooting.
Wesley Yates III scored 20 of his 27 points in the second half and Chibuzo Agbo added 17 for the Trojans (14-14, 6-11), who lost their fourth straight game and sixth in the past seven. Desmond Claude had 12 points before fouling out, and Rashaun Agee also scored 12 points for USC.
Royal converted a three-point play to give Ohio State an 83-80 lead with 41.3 seconds remaining.
Parrish stole the ball from Claude and was fouled with 26 seconds left. He split two free throws to make it a four-point game.
Yates hit two free throws with 20.1 seconds remaining for USC. Mobley split two for the Buckeyes to make it 85-82 with 17.4 seconds to play.
Yates missed a 3-pointer with just under six seconds left. Mobley then made two free throws with 2.8 seconds remaining to sew it up.
Ohio State shot 54 percent from the field, including 11 of 20 from 3-point range. Most of the damage came in the first half when the Buckeyes shot 73.1 percent (19 of 26) from the field and hit 8 of 9 from 3-point range while taking a 52-38 lead.
USC connected on a stellar 60 percent of its attempts for the game and was 7 of 18 from behind the arc.
Yates got hot after halftime and had 14 points during the first 10:19, culminating with a three-point play as the Trojans crept within 69-65.
Thornton made two free throws to give the Buckeyes a 76-69 lead with 7:27 left. USC responded with consecutive layups by Agee, Yates and Claude to move within one with 4:14 remaining.
Thornton and Royal each hit two free throws to give Ohio State an 80-75 lead with 3:08 left.
The Trojans answered with five straight points, with Agee banking in a hook shot to tie it with 1:07 remaining.
Ohio State endured its two worst shooting games of the season prior to this contest. It shot 32.7 percent in a 70-49 loss to Northwestern on Thursday and then 31.7 percent three days later in a 69-61 setback against UCLA.
In the first half, Thornton had 14 points, Parrish added 13 and Mobley scored 11 for the Buckeyes. Agbo had 11 in the half for USC.
Ohio State’s lead topped out at 17 on a layup by Parrish with 1:02 left.
–Field Level Media
