BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Bruce Thornton needed all of two sentences to get to the heart of what sunk Ohio State against Indiana on Saturday night.

“It’s really hard to win games if you’re not making shots,” the sophomore guard said. “Whoever scores the most points wins the game at the end of the day.”

For the umpteenth time, those words were proven right. With a shot at ending a streak of more than a full year without a road win, the Buckeyes entered Assembly Hall with an opportunity to take control of the narrative of their season. Win, and both a 10-game road losing streak and a separate, three-game losing streak here would both be toast.

Then the Buckeyes combined to miss 20 of their 27 3-pointers. That cracked open a door for Indiana that 14 Ohio State turnovers busted wide open, and in the end the Buckeyes once again left an opponent’s arena licking a few wounds and vowing they would learn from their mistakes after a 71-65 loss.

In this case, though, a lot of what held Ohio State back was the inability to put the ball in the basket. The Buckeyes shot 38.0% from 3-point range through their first 14 games, led by Jamison Battle (42 for 94, 44.7%), Roddy Gayle Jr. (17 for 43, 39.5%) and Thornton (28 for 75, 37.3%).

Battle finished 5 for 10 against the Hoosiers, his fourth straight game with at least five made 3-pointers. Thornton, though, missed all seven of his attempts. Gayle was 0 for 5. Together, the sophomore guards who have been the catalysts for so much of Ohio State’s offense went 7 for 34 from the floor.

During the second half, Thornton was 1 for 11 from the floor and missed five 3-pointers. Gayle was 3 for 11 with two 3-point misses. Many of them were good looks off of offensive rebounds, shots that the Buckeyes routinely make.

Just not Saturday night.

“The shots weren’t falling tonight in the second half,” fourth-year center Zed Key, who played in his 100th career game, said. “Felix (Okpara) on the (offensive) glass, he was dominant down there grabbing rebounds. That’s what we need, and we (were) kicking it out. Those shots weren’t falling.”

The inability to make a shot was exacerbated by two other critical areas. Ohio State had 14 turnovers, six of which were courtesy of Indiana steals. Many of the 14 were mostly the result of what coach Chris Holtmann said were simply bad ball skills by high-use players.

Thornton did not have a turnover, but Gayle finished with five. So did Battle.

“We certainly had some clean looks, particularly off of offensive rebounds,” Holtmann said. “Wide-open looks that you want guys taking. I think the ball a couple times stuck and it needs to move better, particularly with our guards. They’ve got to see those situations, and our wings can’t have 10 turnovers. Outside of that, we had good looks that I trust we’ll make.”

The Hoosiers turned those 14 giveaways into a 22-5 advantage in points off turnovers. Indiana had only four turnovers.

Then there was the issue of the defense. Indiana finished with an adjusted offensive efficiency rating of 111.0 points per 100 possessions, its fifth-highest mark of the season and the fourth-worst allowed by the Buckeyes this year. For a while, Ohio State’s defense held even while the offense fired up miss after miss. The Buckeyes went from 18:11 until 12:31 of the second half without scoring, missing nine straight shots and turning it over four times during that stretch.

And yet, when Key dunked the ball with 12:31 left, it gave Ohio State a 48-45 lead. The Buckeyes weren’t scoring, but neither were the Hoosiers – until Malik Reneau tied it with a 3-pointer with 12:07 left on the next possession.

Indiana scored on six of eight possessions to build a lead it wouldn’t give up.

“I thought at that point you’ve got to defend better,” Holtmann said. “We’ve got to find a way to get stops in that situation and rely on our defense. We weren’t as good as we needed to be given our shooting being as poor as what it was.”

Here are four more takeaways from the loss.

Ohio State comes up short with late rally

When Reneau finished off a lob from Trey Galloway with 3:34 left, the Hoosiers lead swelled to a game-high 66-56 and the crowd roared in anticipation of a win going away. Instead, Battle hit a 3-pointer, one of two the Buckeyes would make during the second half, to start a late rally.

It ultimately proved too little, too late, but Holtmann said it showed that his team doesn’t have a mental issue when trying to win games on the road.

“We clawed back and cut it to two,” he said. “I actually felt great about that.”

Felix Okpara drew a foul and hit two one-and-one free throws with 2:28 left to cut the deficit to 66-61, and when Indiana’s Xavier Johnson made one of two free throws at the other end Gayle finished a feed after a Battle offensive rebound. Just like that, it was a 67-65 game with 1:44 left.

Reneau scored again, making it a two-possession game, and Ohio State countered with a Gayle miss. Indiana turned it over, giving the Buckeyes a chance to made things interesting, but Battle caught a pass with his foot on the baseline for his team’s final turnover with 15.8 seconds left.

“Jamison stepping out, we’ve got to clean that up,” Holtmann said. “Roddy’s play at the rim, he’s got to finish that.”

Ohio State’s big lineup pays some dividends

During the preseason, the Buckeyes discussed the possibility of playing Okpara and Key together in certain situations primarily against bigger teams. The Hoosiers fit that bill, and the two centers were on the floor together more against the Hoosiers than they had played together all season to this point.

Against Indiana, they were on the court together for 7:34. Ohio State was outscored 11-10 with the two of them together.

“I thought in this game they did a pretty good job,” Holtmann said. “They were really good on the glass. It was hard not to play Felix because of his length. It matched up with their length, particularly with Ware. He was so active. We really needed him in the game as much as we could have him in the game.

“He and Zed, they did OK. I thought Zed gave us some good moments outside of a couple defensive errors there late that he’s got to clean up but he gave us some really, really good moments.”

Entering the game, Okpara and Key had scored the court for a total of 5:18 this season and Ohio State was outscored 15-14 during that time.

Okpara had a career-high 15 rebounds, five of which were offensive boards, and had 6 points on 2-of-5 shooting. Key finished with 11 points and five rebounds, four of which were on the offensive end.

Ohio State out-rebounded Indiana 47-27. The Hoosiers entered the game with a plus-2.4 rebounding differential on the season.

“I feel like it worked,” Key said of playing with Okpara. “We were rebounding well out there. It was a good thing for us tonight. We’ve got to practice it more.”

Roddy Gayle’s turnovers continue to mount as Dale Bonner sits

The sophomore guard tied a season high with his five turnovers, matching the total he had in a win against Minnesota on Dec. 3. Gayle has now not had a game with fewer than three turnovers since he had just one against Miami (Ohio) on Dec. 6. In his last six games, Gayle is averaging 3.7 turnovers.

On a night where his shot wasn’t falling, Holtmann said he didn’t sense Gayle pressing.

“I think his decision-making needs to improve,” the coach said. “I really don’t think it was a situation where he was pressing.”

Gayle’s issues scoring and taking care of the ball against the Hoosiers didn’t mean an increase in playing time for fifth-year guard Dale Bonner. The Baylor transfer only played two minutes during the second half, finishing the game with 2 points on 1-of-5 shooting with two assists and no turnovers.

Bonner is now 2 for his last 16 from the floor in Ohio State’s last four games.

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Scotty Middleton scores, Taison Chatman plays

When Thornton picked up a second foul with 8:17 left in the first half, it sent him to the bench for the remainder of the half as the Buckeyes tried to survive as long as possible without their point guard. Ohio State led by five when he exited and by one when he returned for the start of the second half, and in the interim freshman guard Taison Chatman made his Big Ten debut.

The highest-rated player in this year’s four-man freshman class, Chatman has been slowed by injuries and missed most of the preseason. He had appeared in four games totaling 16:07 before Saturday, but he was on the court for 2:50 during the first half as the Buckeyes compensated for Thornton’s absence.

He was credited with a turnover but otherwise didn’t record a statistic. The giveaway came on a baseline-out-of-bounds play where he lobbed the ball to Gayle in the paint only for the guard to lose his handle on the ball.

“I thought he had a good defensive possession,” Holtmann said. “The turnover really wasn’t on him. We’ve got to do a better job of getting open there. Taison’s got to keep working.”

The offense got an atypical scoring boost from Scotty Middleton. The freshman wing was 2 for 19 from the floor in his last four games and 2 for 8 from 3-point range, but he was perfect on four shots, including a 3-pointer, to finish with 9 points in 17:41 against the Hoosiers.

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 5 takeaways: Poor shooting, ball control doom Ohio State at Indiana