Columbus, Ohio — Minnesota Marcus Carr’s three-pointer with 3.3 seconds left gave his team its first road victory this season in a 62-59 victory in front of an announced crowd of 13,234 at Value City Arena.
Carr, who finished the game with 21 points and seven boards, led the Gophers to their first victory in Columbus since the 2004-05 season. That was also the last time Minnesota swept the Buckeyes.
“It felt good to finally put it all together,” said Carr, who scored a career-best 35 points in the 84-71 victory Dec. 15 against Ohio State at Williams Arena. “We’ve been tested on the road a lot. We just hadn’t been able to finish it down the stretch. We got a chance to do that Thursday.”
Ohio State was up nine-points at halftime 37-28 but couldn’t close the surging Gophers out.
This is the Buckeyes’ second home loss this season and their sixth loss in the Big Ten.
“Right now we’re just not good enough in enough areas to win,” head coach Chris Holtmann said. “We’re just not, but Holtman thought the Buckeyes competed, battled hard, and were locked in.”
Ohio State Kaleb Wesson, who had an off night just two points on 1-of-10 shooting — including missing a potential go-ahead 3-pointer — Wesson still pull down 14 boards. The Buckeyes had no scoring from their key players tonight.
With the two teams tied at 59, Carr pulled up from three and drilled a game-winning shot with three seconds remaining to seal the deal for the Gophers. Ohio State moves to 2-6 in Big Ten play as the season continues to spiral downward.
Daniel Oturu, who was averaging nearly 22 points and 12 boards in conference play, was held scoreless in the first half. But he found some space in the second scoring 11 points in the paint, while also holding Kaleb Wesson to two points on 1-for-10 shooting.
“It’s special to come into a place like this and to get a win,” Oturu said. “We fought the whole game.”
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