The decoy play had been run a few times, and Roddy Gayle was ready.

Ohio State led visiting Merrimack 39-31 in the opening minutes of the second half when Evan Mahaffey drew a foul on guard Jordan McKoy with 15:09 to play. It gave the Buckeyes the ball under their own basket, where sophomore guard Bruce Thornton sized up the Warriors defense.

The Buckeyes had been in this position before, and Merrimack had an idea of what was coming. That is, until Gayle saw his defender make a slight change to his posture.

“As soon as I lifted up to the wing, we knew the guard was gonna turn his head,” Gayle said. “As soon as he turned his back, that was an indicator for me to cut to the rim.”

What happened next was textbook execution. Thornton threw the lob to Gayle who soared through the air, grabbed it and slammed it home for the most emphatic play of the game. In a game where Ohio State never trailed, the alley-oop put the Buckeyes back ahead by double digits and helped enliven an environment starting to brew some nervous energy as the Warriors threatened to make it close.

The play was something Gayle said the Ohio State coaches had specifically schemed for against Merrimack’s aggressive defense.

“Through our scout and watching them play, we know they get aggressive on out of bounds,” he said. “Bruce threw an amazing ball and I caught it.”

Gayle tied his career high with 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting and was 3 for 4 from 3-point range after having missed his first seven attempts from deep this season. This play was the highlight, and coach Chris Holtmann said he called it for its potential to help put a charge into a Value City Arena crowd of 7,929 that marked the lowest attendance for a regular-season game in arena history.

“Sometimes when the game’s as stagnant as it was, that’s why I called it to be honest because I felt like we could get a little juice in the building,” he said. “If we could execute, I thought it would give our guys a little life. There as a moment there, it was a high pass, but he went and got it. It was impressive.”

Here are four other takeaways from Ohio State’s 76-52 win against Merrimack.

Evan Mahaffey helps Buckeyes solve Merrimack’s zone

It’s written on the first page of Merrimack’s official game notes. The fifth bullet point, just above the team’s statistical leaders, says “make chaos defense.” It goes on to describe the Warriors’ preferred method of madness, their zone defense, as “the Syracuse zone on Red Bull.”

With guards who swarm along the perimeter and dig down from different places and angles on paint touches, Ohio State began its preparations during the preseason for its third game of the season. Oakland and Texas A&M, the first two opponents, also brought their own zone defenses to the table, but Merrimack’s was different.

Ohio State countered with a few different players, but arguably the greatest impact came from second-year guard Evan Mahaffey.

“He was important,” Holtmann said. “What you want in those situations is if you can put a guy who can score and shoot and can also make really good reads almost like a quarterback in there, that’s your most effective guy.”

In 17:41, Mahaffey finished with 6 points on 2 of 6 shooting and added four rebounds, three steals and two assists.

“We did a great job all week seeing that look,” he said of preparing for the zone. “I feel like the guys in practice gave us a really good look. Being able to facilitate out of that middle, I know Rod got a couple buckets out of the middle. Being able to be aggressive out of there and play through different people (was important).”

Ohio State changed things up in second half

At the break, Ohio State held a 35-29 lead but came away wanting more after going only 9 for 28 (32.1%) from the floor. It wasn’t that the Buckeyes didn’t like the shots they were getting, but rather that they just weren’t falling.

Starting with a Gayle basket while being fouled with 16:35 remaining, the Buckeyes seized control with a 28-12 run that made it a 65-43 lead with 5:32 to play.

“We were able to do some ball screen (actions), we changed up our attack in the last 15 minutes and that, combined with getting a little bit of a lead, I think our guys were a little more aggressive,” Holtmann said. “We did change our attack a little bit to a little bit more ball-screen stuff. More than anything, when you have a lead of 10-13, your basket’s a little more open in those situations and that helped.”

Some of it involved Minnesota transfer Jamison Battle who, after going 1 for 6 with two turnovers in the first half, had 9 points after halftime and hit two 3-pointers.

“Part of that was him setting some on-ball (screens) which we thought could give them trouble and then popping,” Holtmann said. “Once he made a few of those, Bruce made a nice read off of that (for a layup).”

Ohio State went 17 for 31 (54.8%) from the floor during the second half and 6 for 9 (66.7%) from 3.

Chris Holtmann praises ‘great teammate’ Felix Okpara

With 17:36 to play and Ohio State’s lead trimmed from a first-half-high 12 points down to 35-31, sophomore starting center Felix Okpara was replaced by fourth-year Zed Key. To that point, Okpara had 4 points on 2 of 4 shooting, four rebounds, a block and two fouls in 11:54.

It was also the end of his night. Key remained on the court until 2:23 remained, helping Ohio State turn that four-point lead into a 71-46 lead and finishing with his first double-double of the season at 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Okpara has things he still needs to improve on, Holtmann said, but how he handled the situation was something the coach lauded when asked what message was being sent to the 6-11, 235-pound sophomore.

“We just thought Zed was a better option,” Holtmann said. “Felix was such a special kid. He was the loudest guy on the bench. He was literally calling out our defensive calls, challenging our guys, he was an unbelievable teammate to the guy that was replacing him, Zed. He was talking to him the whole 15 minutes.

“What a great example of what a great teammate looks like. He’s going to be a really good player. His time will come.”

Devin Royal scores first career points as Ohio State empties bench

Freshman forward Devin Royal walked into Value City Arena on Wednesday night with two games under his belt but in search of his first career points. The Pickerington Central product had attempted just one shot, a 3-pointer, while playing a combined 13:02 against Oakland and Texas A&M. Although he had added five rebounds and four blocked shots, Royal’s playing time had come exclusively during the first half.

He got on the board with 8:19 left in the first half against Merrimack when he got the ball inside the zone, got to the left block and finished at the rim after having missed two floater attempts to that point. He added another layup with 2:13 left, finishing with 4 points, one rebound, one assist and three turnovers (two of which were in a 25-second span during the final two minutes of the game) in 5:58.

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“His ability to switch and guard the ball is going to be important for us,” Holtmann said. “Sometimes he can struggle with keeping the ball in front. Devin’s got to be patient with himself. He’s got to be patient with this process and keep getting better. He’s gonna be a really good player, but it takes some time. He’s going to help our team for sure.”

The 24-point win allowed Holtmann to empty his bench in the closing minutes. Freshman Austin Parks, who was listed as questionable for the first two games, made his debut with 2:23 remaining and got his first career assist on Royal’s layup. Third-year forward Kalen Etzler made his first appearance of the season and had a steal in 1:24.

“It’s a byproduct of getting a 20-point lead in the last four minutes,” Holtmann said. “You can do that some and throw guys like Austin in there. You don’t go into a game assuming that was going to be the case.”

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: High-flying Roddy Gayle: 5 Ohio State takeaways from Merrimack win