Felix Okpara may have been out with the flu, but it was Zed Key’s performance in his stead that was truly sick.
Key went 6-for-8 from the field and racked up 16 points in 17 minutes, adding five rebounds in a 78-36 win for Ohio State over New Orleans on Thursday.
“We missed Felix tonight. He’s a good player, and we definitely missed his presence,” Key said. “But my teammates found me in the right spots during the game, and I was able to convert on multiple occasions.”
Ohio State has a nine-day layoff before its next game against West Virginia, meaning there’s a good chance Okpara is back in the lineup after a single start from Key.
But for the Buckeyes’ top bench scorer – Key is now averaging 10.1 points per game – to put on an efficient showing while filling in bodes well as Ohio State prepares for conference play in January.
“Zed’s scoring is really important for us,” Jake Diebler, who filled in as acting head coach for a flu-stricken Chris Holtmann, said. “I think his ability to draw fouls with his physicality is important for us, and for us to have that kind of firepower checking into the game off the bench has been really valuable.”
Key’s first points proved important for Ohio State in the early stretches of the contest. With neither team off to a good shooting start – New Orleans began 3-of-17 from the field while Ohio State opened 5-of-22 – Key flipped in a layup while being fouled and hit the crowd with one of his two signature celebrations, the finger guns. He converted the ensuing free throw to make it 12-7 Buckeyes just over eight minutes into the game.
Adversity struck Key in the first half, however, both literally and figuratively. First, he was hit with a blow to the back of his head that shook him up a bit.
“I was trying to post up and I got hit with an elbow,” Key said. “I’m fine. It definitely hurt, stung because it was the back of the head. But I’m good, just had to walk it off.”
Then he picked up his second foul with 10:26 to play in the opening period, forcing him to exit the contest until the second set of 20 minutes.
“Equally impressive (as his scoring) was his ability to stay engaged despite foul trouble,” Diebler said. “I thought he did a really good job. He certainly could have got into himself with the fouls but he didn’t flinch. He kept playing physical, did a good job on the glass and his efficiency inside was important, especially when we were struggling making shots for a stretch.”
Key slammed down a ball with two hands to pick things back up four minutes into the second half and the Value City Arena crowd received the second of Key’s two celebrations, his raise the roof.
Now in his fourth season at Ohio State, fans are quite familiar with Key’s expressive nature following big plays. But Thursday's postgame press conference gave Key a chance to dive into how his celebrations started, even if the origins are nothing spectacular.
“Finger guns, I did something similar in high school but there was more arm movement,” Key said. “That was my first game freshman year (at Ohio State), I just did it with my wrists and it caught on. Don’t change it now, everyone knows it. Raise the roof, I always did that in high school every time I dunk. Just gets the crowd into it.”
Freshman teammate Devin Royal did his own raising of the roof after a second-half slam off a steal.
“Trying to steal my celebration but it’s okay,” Key said with a laugh while dapping up Royal in the presser.
“I wouldn’t say steal. It’s been around,” Royal chuckled in response.
His early second-half throwdown was far from the last time fans got to see Key uplift the ceiling against the Privateers.
"Zed’s scoring is really important for us."– Jake Diebler
In a stretch of 3:19 through the middle of the second half, Key smashed through three more dunks.
Perhaps the most emphatic was the first, where Royal batted a ball to himself twice through two defenders to pick up an offensive rebound and dished the ball to Roddy Gayle Jr. in the lane, who pitched it to Key for a slam with a foul. Key converted the additional free throw as well, part of a 4-of-5 night from the foul line for the big man.
“We felt like going into this game that this was probably, more than some other nights, that we needed to be aggressive feeding the ball inside,” Diebler said. “We also felt like, with the way their defense is designed, that he can get some looks behind the defense too off penetration. So he executed his job really well. Sixteen points in 17 minutes is certainly impressive, but his efficiency was good and I felt like he played well off others today.”
Ohio State will hope for more index-finger revolvers and roof raisers as the season rolls on.
