Duane Washington Jr. scored 17 points and No. 22 Ohio State held off Cleveland State 67-61 on Sunday.
The Buckeyes (5-0) were coming off a good road win at Notre Dame on Tuesday, but struggled to put away the Vikings (0-3). Ohio State played its first game without star forward E.J. Liddell, who is sidelined with a non-COVID-19 related illness.
“I’ve been saying for a couple weeks about us being a work in progress,” Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said. “We’re not there yet, but a lot of teams aren’t. We’ve got to take and learn from tonight just like we have the previous games.”
C.J. Walker added 16 points and freshman Zed Key had his first career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
D’Moi Hodge had 14 points and Chris Greene scored 12 for Cleveland State.
Ohio State led 31-24 at halftime before Cleveland State got the lead down to 38-37 on a rebound basket by Greene with 11:39 left in the game. The Vikings had two possessions where they could have tied the game or taken the lead, but could not take advantage.