LOUISVILLE — Sam Thompson has been around the block. He knows you can't fall behind by 20 points on the road against one of the top teams in the country and still expect to win the game.
But that's exactly what happened to No. 14 Ohio State on Tuesday night in a primetime showdown at fifth-ranked Louisville. The Buckeyes got hit with some early haymakers against the Cardinals and couldn't quite recover in a 64-55 loss — their first of the season.
“It was us. We allowed the crowd to take us out of the game. We allowed the stage to take us out of the game," Thompson said. "We weren’t thinking like we need to think in a game like this. When that happens against a good team, you see what happens, you get down 20.”
Ohio State looked lost for most of the first half. The Buckeyes shot just 23 percent from the floor and had just 18 points at intermission. At times, it looked like a varsity team playing agains the junior varsity. The Cardinals were bigger, stronger, faster and more athletic than the Buckeyes as Wayne Blackshear scorched the nets for 16 first-half points.
“It’s our first time on the road, a lot of new guys, a lot of new faces that have never put this jersey on. We’ve just got to grow from it," Thompson said. "We’ve got to come out more focused, we’ve got to come out with better execution and our minds have to be in the game from the jump. We can’t do the whole deal where we get down 20 and then start fighting. We’ve got to play from the jump.”
But Ohio State coach Thad Matta said coming into the game he would find out a lot about his team whether it won or lost. That certainly rang true in the game's second half.
The Buckeyes showed fight and grit as they clawed their way back into the game and found themselves trailing by only three with just over a minute to play. But a 3-pointer by Louisville's Terry Rozier all but sealed the deal for the Cardinals and ended any final push by Ohio State.
"Everyone looks in the mirror and learns a lot about themselves from that game," said freshman D'Angelo Russell, who scored a team-high 17 points and led Ohio State's second-half comeback. "It was a big game in front of the lights and a crazy crowd. We have to be ready to perform in big games and little games.”
The Buckeyes will have plenty of opportunities to prove themselves on a big stage the rest of the way. And even though Ohio State played poorly for the most part against the Cardinals on Tuesday, it could help out a team which plays four freshmen consistently in the rotation.
"The easiest thing for us to do is go tell our guys we did a great job of coming back and obviously we did, we showed some toughness," said Ohio State associate head coach Dave Dickerson, who addressed the media as Matta consoled Anthony Lee after Lee found out his grandmother passed away earlier Tuesday. "... I thought those guys settled down where the moment wasn’t too big for them in the second half. It was a tail of two halves and the first half we dug a hole for ourselves being down by 17 at halftime."
