COLUMBUS, Ohio _ A few things still had to go wrong before, at least for one night, they could get better for Ohio State.
Burdened with a four-game losing streak and an offense that hadn't cracked 60 points in nearly a month, the No. 21 Buckeyes took two hits before the opening tip Tuesday night against Nebraska when coach Chris Holtmann announced that he had suspended sophomore guards Luther Muhammad and Duane Washington Jr. for "a failure to meet program standards and expectations."
Without those two key members of the rotation, the Buckeyes still handled business on their home court with an 80-68 win against Nebraska, a team in transition that returned only 50 points from last season under first-year coach Fred Hoiberg.
The suspensions to Muhammad and Washington are open-ended and at Holtmann's discretion. Neither player was on the bench for the game, and their statuses for a Saturday at Penn State are to be determined.
The win helps the Buckeyes (12-5, 2-4 Big Ten) avoid a five-game losing streak for the second straight season. Given the circumstances surrounding the team during the lead-up to the game, it felt even more significant.
Without Muhammad and Washington, the Buckeyes started their only two available scholarship guards _ junior CJ Walker and freshman D.J. Carton _ and carried over their recent offensive woes by missing their first five shots in falling behind 4-0. It took an outburst from senior Andre Wesson to ignite things, and it didn't take him long to do so.
After making a three-pointer at 16:40 of the first half to put the Buckeyes on the board, Wesson made two more rapid-fire threes to give him nine points in 49 seconds. His personal 9-0 run gave Ohio State a four-point lead over Nebraska (7-10, 2-4) with 15:51 to play, and the Buckeyes didn't trail again. Ohio State's offense forced the Cornhuskers to miss 13 of their first 16 shots.
In the process, the Buckeyes displayed more offensive firepower than they had in recent weeks. With the lead at 24-15 during the first half, Kyle Young scored on three consecutive possessions to push the lead back to 15 points. After scoring five points in conference play entering the game, sophomore forward Justin Ahrens had five during the first half. Senior walk-on Danny Hummer played in the first half when he checked in with 4:44 to play and was on the court for more than two minutes before heading back to the bench.
Even Holtmann dusted off his seldom-worn salmon dress coat for the game.
Ahrens' desperation heave as time expired in the first half was initially ruled a three-pointer but changed to a two-pointer after video review, but it still gave the Buckeyes more points in one half (38) than they had scored since putting up 45 during the second half of an 80-48 win against Southeast Missouri on Dec. 17.
The Buckeyes shot 54.5% from the field after connecting on 33.6% of their shots during the losing streak.
