Bruce is Boss: Ohio State rolls Indiana 91-78, Thornton becomes all-time leading scorer

With everything going on outside of the actual basketball game — Senior Day and Bruce Thornton chasing down Dennis Hopson’s all-time scoring record, namely — it was easy to forget that Saturday’s game between Ohio State (20-11, 12-8) and Indiana (18-12, 9-11) also had massive NCAA Tournament implications.

Aided by recent wins over Purdue and Penn State, Ohio State has climbed itself into a position with a bit of security on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Indiana, on the other hand, has been living in the gray for weeks now, and needed a win in Columbus just to feel like they have a chance to play in the best sporting event in the world in two weeks.

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Indiana opened the scoring on Saturday, going ahead 5-0 when John Mobley Jr. fouled Lamar Wilkerson shooting a three-pointer not even two minutes into the game. Wilkerson, an 89% free throw shooter, hit all three to put IU up 5-0.

Ohio State answered immediately, going on a 12-3 run over the next three minutes to pull ahead 12-8. The final play before the first media timeout was Thornton turning around and swiping an inbounds pass from Jasai Miles and dropping it in to put Ohio State up four points.

The Buckeyes opened up their lead to 11-points early, but turnovers and poor shot selection opened the door for the Hoosiers to make it a game again, and they did just that. After Thornton’s three put Ohio State up 28-17, the Hoosiers scored the next eight points, getting it within 28-25 with 7:39 left in the first half. Then Hoosiers were struggling from beyond the arc, but was 8-for-11 on two-point shots over the first 12 minutes of the game. Wilkerson was the first one to get into double digits for either team, scoring 10 points in the first 10 minutes.

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Ohio State overwhelmed Indiana over the final 7+ minutes of the first half, outscoring the Hoosiers 22-8 and going into halftime with a 50-33 lead. Thornton’s stepback three-pointer with 44 seconds remaining in the first half gave him 12 on the day…

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Publish date : 2026-03-08 00:50:00

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