The pain in his head had been building for a few days, but never to this level. When Bruce Thornton got to Value City Arena on Feb. 29, the Ohio State guard took a light at the bright lights he was scheduled to play under and had to tap out.

A few hours later, as his Buckeyes hosted Nebraska, Thornton was sidelined for the first time in his two-year career with a migraine headache the likes of which he’d never experienced before. As the pain built inside his head, the sophomore captain came to the pretty quick realization that he wouldn’t be suiting up that night.

“I wouldn’t say it was hard (to decide not to play), but it was the smartest decision for me, for my body and for the team,” Thornton said Friday. “If I would’ve went out there with a headache, with the lighting and all the noise, being out there, I wouldn’t have benefitted my team in no aspect. I had faith in my teammates that they would get the job done, and they did.”

The Buckeyes won without Thornton, 78-69, to add more momentum to their late-season surge under interim coach Jake Diebler. Thornton returned three days later and finished with a team-high 17 points in an 84-61 win against Michigan, the program’s biggest win against the Wolverines since the 2004-05 season.

The migraine didn’t stop Ohio State from winning, but it did halt a streak for Thornton. A day-one starter, he had started every Ohio State game until the win against the Cornhuskers. That 63-game streak of consecutive starts to begin a career was the longest since Michael Redd started every game during his three years with the Buckeyes from 1997-2000.

“That day, my head was hurting real bad,” Thornton said. “I walked in the gym and looked at the lights and it was super hard, so I told the trainer that. I went into a room and didn’t see no more light after that. By that time, I probably knew I wasn’t going to play.”

It was a temporary setback for Ohio State’s leading scorer on the season. Now, as the Buckeyes prepare to close the regular season Sunday at Rutgers, they’re navigating an oddly scheduled week of rest following the win against Michigan.

The challenge has been for the Buckeyes to try and maintain their momentum while also taking a break. Ohio State is 4-1 with Diebler in charge and will play the Scarlet Knights with an opportunity to avoid the first day of the Big Ten Tournament that starts Wednesday in Minneapolis.

As the Buckeyes have tried to thread the needle between rest and proper preparation, Diebler has leaned on Thornton while comparing him to a couple of former greats.

“He's a tone-setter,” Diebler said. “The leadership of this team, it’s not certainly exclusive to him but his consistency is all-time great as far as consistently bringing his best stuff. It’s like how Aaron Craft was. I would imagine it’s what David Lightly would’ve been like. The consistency he brings is really valuable.”

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While he was sidelined, Thornton said he trusted his teammates to pick up the slack in his absence. Now in his second season as a captain, he’s had to lead the Buckeyes through a midseason coaching change to a point where they are keeping faint NCAA Tournament hopes alive with each win.

Thornton said it’s been a competitive week that’s in line with how Diebler coaches the team and that he’s taking more of that on his own plate.

“At practice, he just demands more from me now than ever because of how things have been rolling,” Thornton said. “He’s been leaning on me a lot. I’m OK with that, because I feel like I know my teammates have trust in me and I have a lot of trust in them.”

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Bruce Thornton leading Ohio State through late NCAA Tournament push