by The last game of the Legends Basketball Showcase was between The Ohio State Buckeyes of the Big Ten conference and the West Virginia Mountaineers of the Big 12 Conference.
It was Ohio State that obtained the Win over a tough West Virginia team 78-75. Roddy Gayle Jr was the man of the day for Ohio State, he scored 32 points in the victory as he was the leading scorer across all three games played at the showcase
Ohio State showed up early to gain and then increase a lead of 10 points in the first half. The new coaching staff and young players of WVU struggled to keep up for most of the first half.
Ohio State was led by Sophomore guard Gayle Jr, he had nine points for the Buckeyes in the half as he took command of the offense. The offense struggled to get any movement outside of what Gayle Jr created off screens or off his own dribble.
The OSU offense failed to get people open when in the half court and had players standing in place waiting for a missed shot. This ended up coming back to bite the Buckeyes as West Virginia came storming back with a smothering defense and a fast break offense looking to get back in the game.
The Buckeyes didn’t do themselves any favors going 2-12 in the last few minutes of the half. This allowed the Mountaineers to get within two points of the Buckeyes at the end of the half.
The second half seemed to mimic the first, Ohio State started off hot and jumped to a 10 point lead. West Virginia would mount a comeback but never close enough to take the lead.
As the game dwindled down to last minutes Gayle Jr did not let up and continued his impressive performance leading all scorers. Despite his 29 points in regulation this was not enough to prevent WVU from sending this game into Overtime.
Down by two it was Patrick Suemnick who sent a dunk through the floor to tie the game up and give this rowdy crowd more basketball to watch.
Overtime started off the only way it could, Gayle Jr hitting a three sending the crowd into a frenzy. The crowd chanted back and fourth and cheered after every shot made and missed throughout. The Buckeyes had a chance to extend their lead to eight with foul shots off of technical call. They not just missed both of those shots that led to a WVU layup but proceeded to miss two more.
WVU bailed out Ohio State after failing to capitalize on having the ball with eight seconds left. Gayle Jr then ran the clock out to close the game out.
