DAYTON – There were two talking points that everyone involved with Sunday night’s charity exhibition game made sure to emphasize. First, the first Ohio State visit to UD Arena in nearly 35 years was for a bigger purpose, one that helped Dayton raise more than $500,000 for mental health charities.

Second, while score was kept and statistics were counted, they should all be taken with a grain of salt. This wasn’t an official game, hence the “charity exhibition” qualifier, and as such it would be coached and should be viewed differently.

“You do coach a little different in exhibitions,” coach Chris Holtmann said. “You can get caught up a little bit in the midst of the game and trying to win. The reality is you are, but there’s more important things in a game like this that you want to get out than winning.”

Those more important things, aside from raising money for mental health awareness, lie in a preseason road test against a projected NCAA Tournament team that was picked to win the Atlantic 10 in the league’s preseason poll. There is plenty of real, honest feedback for the Buckeyes to digest as they now look ahead to this weekend’s closed, “secret” scrimmage against Clemson in Nashville.

“I told the guys before the game there is nothing that can come out of this experience that isn’t positive as long as we handle it the right way in terms of our approach and handling the adversity of the game and figuring it out together,” Holtmann said. “They were well aware of why we were doing this and the reason behind it. We had that conversation pretty extensively. The basketball stuff, we got to learn just a little bit more about our group. There’s no grand statements coming out of an exhibition.”

Having said that, here are three takeaways from Ohio State’s 78-70 win:

Defensive rebounding an issue

Standing in the hallway outside the Ohio State locker room, Jamison Battle had a pretty good idea what loomed ahead for the Buckeyes.

“I can just imagine what we’re going to do tomorrow, offensive rebounding-wise,” the fifth-year forward said.

It’s an apt summary of one of Ohio State’s biggest areas of struggle against the Flyers.

Dayton finished the game with 14 offensive rebounds and turned them into 17 second-chance points, but its prowess on the glass was especially noticeable in the early going. Through the first 11 minutes, the Flyers had more offensive rebounds (six) than the Buckeyes had defensive rebounds (five), and that helped lead to a 23-all tie with 8:54 to play in the half.

Eleven of Dayton’s first 21 points came on second-chance opportunities.

“The biggest thing was offensive rebounding,” Battle said. “Throughout the course of the game we fixed it, but giving up so many O-boards to start was something we talked about and we just didn’t execute well. I’m sure when we get back to practice (Monday), it’s straight to it.”

Dayton won the rebounding battle, 33-30, and finished with 14 offensive boards. The numbers were affected by a poor shooting performance that was primarily from the perimeter: Ohio State forced Dayton into a 24 for 62 (38.7%) shooting night that included a 12-for-32 (37.5%) effort from beyond the arc. The Flyers also rotated liberally, with coach Anthony Grant using 12 players for at least nine minutes apiece. First-team all-preseason pick DaRon Holmes II played only 16:06 and finished with just one rebound.

It helped make for a clunky flow and some rough play from both teams on each end, but Grant was pleased to see his team win the battle on the glass.

“That’s positive,” he said. “I think we have a team that I’d like to see be able to consistently provide some pressure more, so we were working on it. I didn’t think we were really effective today. Ohio State did a really good job of playing with pace. I thought in dead-ball situations we were a little better, but we’ve got to get more consistent at it. We have to be a good rebounding team.”

Bruce Thornton, Jamison Battle shake off sluggish starts

At the first media timeout, Holtmann sought out his sophomore guard and team captain to give him some advice.

“He was too tentative to start the game,” Holtmann said of Bruce Thornton. “We ran an action for him early and he’s got to come off that thing and shoot it. Bruce is now a sophomore. He’s one of our leaders. He’s got to set the tone on both ends from the jump, but he was terrific throughout the game with the exception of that start.”

Ohio State’s first four possessions were light on ball movement and resulted in late-clock shots. Evan Mahaffey scored the first points on a deep jumper before the buzzer sounded, and it seemed to settle the Buckeyes. They would score on nine straight possessions, building a 20-16 lead in the process, and Thornton scored eight consecutive points during the run by hitting consecutive 3s and then a jumper.

He finished with a game-high 21 points on 7 of 9 shooting while also playing a game-high 27:46.

“At first, I was like, it’s been a minute since I’ve played a game,” he said. “I had to snap out of it and (realize) I’ve been doing this for a long time, so why be nervous now? After that media got out of the way, I talked to coach (Jake) Diebler and after that everything was smooth sailing. I got to my spots and everybody did their job so it made my job easier.”

Battle had a similar start to the game. After the forward passed up a few open looks, including one in transition, Holtmann clearly gestured to Battle to shoot when open. Once he did, the former Golden Gopher went 6 for 7 from the floor to finish with 15 points in 22:24.

“There was one time I got in transition, probably had an open shot and didn’t take it and then the next media timeout coach had something to say to me about not taking that shot,” he said. “If you have an open, transition 3 you might as well shoot it and I think that is something I pride myself on.”

Thornton and Battle were both 3 for 4 from 3-point range. Ohio State shot 55.1% from the floor (27 for 49) and 44.4% (8 for 18) from 3.

Turnovers plague Buckeyes during second-half sequence

Ohio State led the game for 29:35, trailed for only 6:40 and took the lead for good with 5:44 left in the first half on a Battle 3-pointer. But there was one second-half stretch where the Flyers, thanks in part to some full-court pressure, put together a game-tying, 9-0 run as the midpoint of the second half loomed.

At the first media timeout of the half, Ohio State had stretched a three-point halftime lead to 52-43 on a three-point play from Thornton. Out of the timeout, freshman Devin Royal lost the ball as he attempted to take a shot from near the right block. One possession later, Royal turned it over again, starting a stretch that saw the Buckeyes commit turnovers on six of seven possessions as the Flyers tied the game at 52.

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“Offense, it just takes a minute for everybody’s rhythm (and) timing so you’re trying to understand all that,” Thornton said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be perfect. Us (having that stretch) and then come back and be composed and play through it, that’s a good sign because you never know in the Big Ten, especially early in the season, things might not go our way. We’ve got to find a way to keep composure and keep finding ways to win.”

That’s what came next. After those seven possessions, Roddy Gayle took a pass from Thornton and drilled a 3-pointer from the right wing to break the 52-all tie and put Ohio State ahead for good.

“It’s about our response,” Battle said. “You’ve got to move forward. You can’t control the future. You can control the future with the present actions that you have. It’s just getting out there and keep going. You’re going to make mistakes. It’s the first exhibition, but how do we learn from those mistakes is the question we’ve got to ask ourselves.”

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State basketball's exhibition game vs Dayton: 3 key takeaways