Brice Sensabaugh scored 19 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had a career-high seven assists as Ohio State easily downed Maine 95-61 on Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio.
Ohio State (8-3) was able to score at will close the basket to overwhelm Maine (6-6). The Buckeyes posted 64 points in the paint compared 28 for Maine.
The Buckeyes got 15 points from Justice Sueing, 14 from Zed Key, 11 from Bruce Thornton and 10 from Felix Okpara. Sensabaugh, Thornton and Okpara are freshmen.
Kellen Tynes scored 19 points and dished out six assists for Maine. Gedi Juozapaitis added 16 points.
Ohio State rolled to 47-26 halftime lead by pounding the ball inside. The Buckeyes had a dominating 36-10 advantage in the paint and also outscored the Black Bears 12-2 off turnovers.
Maine did have 6-5 lead, but that was merely a temporary setback for the Buckeyes, who wanted to shake of the disappointment of an overtime loss to North Carolina on Saturday.
Key had 10 points as Ohio State went up 20-13, and a dunk by Okpara upped the score to 26-15. The Buckeyes would stretch it to 40-18 before Maine mounted a mini-comeback with six straight points.
The run ended when Ohio State’s Sean McNeil nailed a 3-pointer to reach the 1,000-point mark in his Division I career. He scored 900 points over the previous three seasons at West Virginia while making 155 3-pointers. Prior to that, McNeil played the 2018-19 season at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, where he averaged 29.7 points.
Maine lost for the second time in three days after an 87-55 setback at Akron on Monday.
The Black Bears, under first-year coach Chris Markwood, have equaled their win total of last season (6-23). They have a chance to better that at home against Harvard on Dec. 28.
Ohio State plays host to Alabama A&M on Dec. 29.
–Field Level Media