IOWA CITY, Iowa _ One game removed from its best defensive performance in a Big Ten game in more than two years, Ohio State was going to need something similar Thursday night.
Instead, the No. 25 Buckeyes allowed No. 20 Iowa to bolt out to a 15-point lead and maintain it throughout in an 85-76 win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena that ended Ohio State's two-game winning streak.
Although the Buckeyes (17-9, 7-8 Big Ten) trailed by as many as 19 points during the first half, they never let it beyond that point against the Hawkeyes (19-9, 10-6). And early in the second half, they had a chance to put a scare into what grew into a boisterous crowd.
Actually, they had four of them. After pulling within 51-42 on a CJ Walker three-pointer with 17:13 to play, Ohio State had four straight possessions with a chance to cut into the lead.
They came up empty on each of them, missing four shots and committing three turnovers in the process. Bakari Evelyn broke Iowa's corresponding dry spell with a three-pointer to give the Hawkeyes a 12-point lead with 14:44 to play and it proved too much _ although a flurry of late shots got the Buckeyes within seven.
Freshman E.J. Liddell led the Buckeyes, setting new career highs with 17 points and eight rebounds. Duane Washington Jr. added 15 points, scoring all of them in a five-minute stretch late in the second half.
After playing 10 straight games against unranked teams, Ohio State is 3-3 against top-25 teams this season. The Buckeyes had won three straight games against ranked Iowa teams.
The Buckeyes found some footing after a nightmarish start. Playing on a court where the Hawkeyes had won 11 straight games, Ohio State made only two field goals during the first eight minutes and had no answers defensively. When E.J. Liddell scored with 11:10 to play in the half, it pulled the Buckeyes to 22-8 _ and the deficit still grew.
Iowa's lead reached 19 points at the midway point of the half when Evelyn drained a step-back three-pointer over Kyle Young. The Hawkeyes led 27-8 at that point, but Andre Wesson hit a three-pointer at the other end to start a spurt where Ohio State scored on three straight possessions and seven of its last nine to cut the deficit to 10 points at 35-25.
Liddell, who entered the game averaging 4.9 points in Big Ten play, had 11 points at the break including a stretch where he scored six of Ohio State's eight points punctuated by a fadeaway jumper over Iowa's Luka Garza.
Young's putback of a Liddell miss with 41 seconds to play got the Buckeyes within eight points for the first time since the first three minutes of the game, but Joe Wieskamp hit a three from the left corner to set the halftime score at 46-35. After Washington missed an answering three in the final seconds, he picked up the ball after the buzzer sounded and threw up one more attempt.
It also missed.
