CHICAGO — Bruce Thornton scored 17 points and Roddy Gayle Jr. had all nine of his points in the final six minutes to help give 13th-seeded Ohio State to a 73-69 win over fifth-seeded Iowa in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday.
Brice Sensabaugh added 16 points, Justice Sueing 14 and Sean McNeil 13 for the Buckeyes (15-18), who will play fourth-seeded Michigan State in Friday's quarterfinals. Ohio State beat the 12-seed, Wisconsin, in the first round.
Filip Rebraca scored 20 points, Kris Murray 17 and Tony Perkins 16 for the Hawkeyes (19-13).
Gayle tied the game with a jumper then hit a 3-pointer for the game's 18th and final lead change at 64-61 with about 3 1/2 minutes remaining.
A wild scramble for the ball that spanned the entire court and had several players spilling to the floor with possession flip-flopping ended with the ball out of bounds to Ohio State with 11.5 left and leading 71-69. The Buckeyes inbounded the ball to Sueing and his free throws clinched it.
The teams split their regular-season meetings with the winner scoring in the 90s. Iowa came in first in the Big Ten and in the top 20 nationally in scoring offense at 80.6 per game and Ohio State averaged 72.8. But the game got off to a slow start offensively in the first half with Ohio State leading 29-28 at the break.
While Ohio State finished 7 of 18 from the arc, Iowa was only 4 of 17 and was outscored 14-8 off turnovers that included 10 Buckeyes steals.
