Devin Royal came off the bench to set career highs with 20 points and 12 rebounds as Ohio State bounced back from its first loss to rout Evansville 80-30 in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday.
Royal, a sophomore, set his previous career bests earlier this season at 16 points and nine rebounds.
Evansville shot 12.9 percent in the first half and trailed 28-14 at the break. The Purple Aces (1-4) finished the game at 19 percent, 11 of 58.
Ohio State had no trouble pulling away in the second half, outscoring the Purple Aces 52-16, making their final nine shots to go 21 of 30 (70 percent) over the final 20 minutes. For the night, Ohio State shot 51.9 percent, 28 of 54.
Meechie Johnson Jr. added 13 points and John Mobley Jr. 11 for the Buckeyes (3-1), whose 78-64 loss at then-No. 23 Texas A&M on Friday knocked them out of the Top 25.
Gabriel Pozzato’s eight points led the Purple Aces, who were averaging 75.8 points. He entered as their leading scorer at 19.3 points per game but was held to just two free throws in the first half while missing all five of his shots, four of them beyond the 3-point arc.
In fact, cold shooting destroyed any chance of an upset. The score was 12-12 with 6:57 left before halftime before the Buckeyes went on a 16-2 spree with the help of the Purple Aces going 1 of 13 from the floor to close the period, including missing their final 11 shots.
The Buckeyes could have had a bigger lead, but they weren’t much better through 20 minutes, making just 29.2 percent of their field-goal attempts. The hosts did make 12 of 17 free throws in the opening half while Evansville was 4 of 7.
It was an ugly first four-plus minutes of the game as each team went 0-for-5, missing three 3-point tries while hitting a pair of free throws.
Evansville, in its previous game against Radford, tied a school record with 17 made 3-pointers, but the Purple Aces went 3 of 27 (11.1 percent) from long range against the Buckeyes. Ohio State canned 7 of 21 (33.3 percent) from beyond the arc.
Ohio State is 5-0 all-time vs. Evansville.
