COLUMBUS OH — The Buckeyes opened their home basketball season with a huge second half, beating Purdue Fort Wayne 107-67. The Mastodons kept up with Ohio State for the first twenty minutes of play, ending the half trailing 34-41.
C.J. Jackson was the standout shooter for OSU with a career high 25 points in 30 minutes. Jackson was on fire in the second half, hitting three straight from outside the circle. The senior guard drained four of his seven 3-point shots and went 8-11 in field goals.
The first half of the game saw PFW taking and missing shots in a fast paced, back and forth battle. The two teams stayed within five points of each other until Jackson’s first 3-point jumper which gave OSU an 18-23 lead.
Two missed 3’s and a block from OSU forward Kaleb Wesson and the Mastodons were seemingly buried, trailing 20-27. Kason Harrell (PFW) made a three-point play off a foul and brought his team back into the game.
Jackson’s performance was bolstered by the Bucks’ bench, which put up 53 points. Fans can thank Duane Washington Jr. for 20 of those 53. Washington landed six of his nine 3’s and shot 7-11 FGs in only 21 minutes of play.
Washington’s buckets gave the Buckeyes the lead at the end of the half and PFW never came back.
PFW landed 33.8 percent of its field goals and only 22.2 percent of its 3’s, both numbers being dwarfed by the Buckeyes’ 60.7 and 53.6 percents respectively.
Fort Wayne’s John Konchar led the Dons with 13 points and nine rebounds. Harrell also added 13 points.
OSU is 2-0 and goes to Creighton Thursday night while the 1-2 Mastodons can be seen at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum and on Comcast CN81 at 7 p.m. Tuesday against Manchester.