NEW DEVELOPMENT: Ohio State’s small point guard will not play tonight against Iowa in men’s basketball because of….

After both Ohio State and Iowa snapped three-game losing streaks recently, the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes meet in Columbus tonight.

Ohio State secured their best win of the season on Tuesday night, beating Purdue 73-70 at Mackey Arena, snapping the 26-game home winning streak of the Boilermakers. The Buckeyes (11-8, 3-5) showed a lot of grit in the victory, erasing a 16-point first half deficit to upset their ranked foe. The victory halted Ohio State’s three-game losing streak, and gave Jake Diebler’s team a shot at finishing the month of January at .500 if they are able to beat Iowa tonight and Penn State in State College on Thursday evening.

Purdue went into the halftime break with a 41-28 lead and it looked like Ohio State was on their way to their fourth straight loss. Whatever was said in the Buckeye locker room at halftime must have struck a chord since Ohio State opened up the second half with a 17-2 run to take a 45-43 lead. Purdue looked like they regained their composure when they took a 59-53 lead with 7:22 left before the Buckeyes answered with a 15-0 spurt to open up a 68-59 lead. While the Boilermakers would make the score tight late, Ohio State wouldn’t relinquish the lead the rest of the game.

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Leading the comeback for the Buckeyes on Tuesday night was Micah Parrish, who hit six three-pointers and finished with a career-high 22 points. Parrish has had a solid month of January, scoring at least 11 points in five of Ohio State’s six games in 2025. The San Diego State transfer also was a beast on the boards, pulling down a team-high seven rebounds against the Boilermakers.

The contributions from Parrish were massive since not only did Colin White only play seven minutes in the game because of an injury, John Mobley Jr. was limited to just 19 minutes after taking a shot to the face in the first half. Mobley was able to return to the game, hitting a jumper with 29 seconds left in the game to push Ohio State’s lead to 70-67. The freshman finished with nine points.

Along with Parrish, the other Buckeyes to reach double figures in scoring against Purdue were Devin Royal and Bruce Thornton. Royal finished with 16 points and six rebounds in 36 minutes on the floor. The only game where Royal played more minutes was the double overtime victory against Minnesota a couple weeks ago. Thornton added 11 points, six rebounds, and five assists. With his scoring output, Thornton now sits 36th in school history with 1,245 points, passing Ron Stokes and Kaleb Wesson. Thornton is 28 points away from passing Keita Bates-Diop on Ohio State’s career scoring list.

Preview

Tonight’s opponent for Ohio State is the Iowa Hawkeyes, who also recently snapped a three-game losing streak with a 76-75 win over Penn State in Iowa City on Friday night. The tilt between the Nittany Lions and Hawkeyes (13-7, 4-5) saw Iowa create some distance at times but Penn State kept finding ways to keep clawing back, leaving the result hanging in the balance until time expired in the second half.

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Leading Iowa in scoring in the victory was Owen Freeman and Drew Thelwell, with both Hawkeyes netting 16 points. Freeman nearly recorded a double-double, falling a rebound short of the mark. The sophomore forward is not only leading Iowa with 16.9 points per game, his 6.7 rebounds per game is also the high mark on the team. Thelwell is in his first season in Iowa City after spending four years at Morehead State. The guard now has 1,004 career points and is averaging 10.2 points per game this campaign.

One player the Buckeyes will have to keep a very close eye on is Payton Sandfort since the senior can heat up in a hurry from behind the arc. Sandfort has seven games this year where he has hit at least four three-pointers, with his high being six triples in a 97-87 overtime win over Nebraska earlier this month. He won’t be the only Sandfort on the floor tonight, as his younger brother Pryce Sandfort is averaging 8.5 points per game as a sophomore.

Rounding out the backcourt for Iowa are Josh Dix and Brock Harding. Dix is third on the team with 13.9 points per game. The junior from Council Bluffs rarely comes off the floor, playing at least 33 minutes in each of the last four games. Harding has started all 20 games this year after seeing just 10 minutes per game as a freshman last year. The sophomore has shown he can be a tremendous distributor, averaging 6.2 assists per game in an offense that is averaging 86.8 points per contest.

The Buckeyes and Hawkeyes met twice last year with Iowa winning the only regular season meeting 79-77 in Iowa City in early February. Ohio State earned some revenge in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament with a 90-78 victory. The win in March marked the second year in a row that the Buckeyes have upended Iowa in the second round of the conference tournament, as Ohio State won 73-69 in 2023 in Chicago. Amazingly, in 170 games all-time between the programs, each team has won 85 times.