NICEVILLE, Fla. – The celebration started with the recognition of a partisan crowd that brought more noise than its numbers might have suggested possible. It moved into an impromptu dance circle, with Jamison Battle cutting a rug before Zed Key sauntered to the middle of the circle and started to take center stage only for all the proceedings to be abruptly cut off.

There was a trophy to grab. As it made it way across center court at Raider Arena, it was Battle who was the closest and therefore the first to get his hands on it. He quickly hoisted it into the air, pumping it up and down twice as his Ohio State teammates engulfed him with their arms outstretched.

Finally, the Emerald Coast Classic championship trophy got as high as it’s possibly ever been when it reached the long arms of Felix Okpara. The 6-11 center had blocked three shots in the 86-56 win against Santa Clara on Saturday night, and now those hands were thrusting the trophy high into the air in celebration.

As far as Thanksgiving tournaments go, this wasn’t exactly the Maui Invitational or the Battle 4 Atlantis. But in knocking both No. 17 Alabama and the Broncos from the ranks of the undefeated, an Ohio State program still distancing itself from the doldrums of last season had a tangible sign of progress to claim as its own.

On the campus of Northwest Florida State College, the Buckeyes had reason to celebrate even as they tried to keep the big picture in mind.

“It means a lot,” Bruce Thornton, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player, told The Dispatch. “It says that we’re capable of doing it. We’re capable of winning the big one. We’re going to take it day by day. I just love what we have as a team. Everybody’s bonding together. Nobody cares who’s got the most points or anything. We just want to win.”

This early in the season, the shadow of what the Buckeyes – and Thornton perhaps most of all – suffered through last season is never far. That 16-19 record, one capped by a strong showing leading into the Big Ten Tournament, was defined by a young core of players not yet quite ready to handle the adversity that inevitably arrives during a season. Throughout, Thornton was the bedrock, a freshman who was the only player to start every game and was also moved to a captain’s role midseason.

With aspirations of bigger things in a bounce-back season, winning the Emerald Coast Classic probably didn’t crack the top-five goals list for Ohio State during the preseason. But once the Buckeyes arrived in Florida on Tuesday night, their mantra was clear: We’re here, they’re giving out a trophy to the winning team, why shouldn’t that be us?

“Last year gave me a lot of teaching points,” Thornton said. “This year it’s showing the younger ones this is how we’re gonna play Ohio State basketball. We get to show it to the whole world and if we keep playing like this it’s gonna be great for us.”

Thornton scored a career-high 29 points Friday night’s win against Alabama and followed that by scored 13 and dishing out a career-high seven assists against Santa Clara. He was named to the all-tournament team alongside classmate Roddy Gayle Jr. who scored a career-high 23 points against the Crimson Tide and had 8 points, four assists and no turnovers while battling foul trouble against the Broncos.

Everyone else chipped in. Key scored in double figures in both games. Okpara pulled down 10 rebounds against Alabama and 17 overall. Battle led the Buckeyes with a season-high 21 points against Santa Clara. Dale Bonner went 5 for 7 from 3. Evan Mahaffey’s versatility allowed Ohio State’s defense to effectively clamp down on Alabama’s prolific offense. Taison Chatman made his first appearances after missing much of the preseason due to injury.

Battle said it’s not so much the fact that Ohio State heads home with a trophy as the way it won the hardware – as a team.

“I think we just kept building on what we had the last couple weeks,” he said. “I think that’s what our goal is all the time. Going out here and winning a championship, that’s what you strive for. I think there’s a long road ahead, but if we continue to think about the right things and continue to emphasize the little things, things are gonna go the right way. It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s nowhere near the pinnacle.”

As the fifth-year forward said, there’s a long road ahead. Big Ten play starts Dec. 3 when his former school, Minnesota, comes to Value City Arena. Of the 25 remaining regular-season games on the schedule, all but five of them are against top-100 teams according to KenPom.com.

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Winning an event like the Emerald Coast Classic doesn’t guarantee anything and won’t impact the Big Ten standings. But it beats coming to Florida and not winning it, freshman Scotty Middleton said.

And asked what this says about the Buckeyes, Middleton had a quick answer.

“Probably that we’re not what people thought we were,” he said.

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Hoisting trophy, Ohio State celebrates Emerald Coast Classic triumph