West Virginia University
8-4,0-0Big 12
Ohio State
8-2,1-1Big Ten
Ohio State Edges West Virginia in Double Overtime
December 13, 2025 11:51 PM | Men's Basketball
Bruce Thornton's short jumper with 3.6 seconds left in overtime lifted Ohio State to an 89-88 double-overtime victory over West Virginia in the second game of the Cleveland Hoops Showdown at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
Ohio University edged St. Bonaventure 88-83 in the first game.
The Buckeyes rallied from a 16-point second half deficit by outscoring the Mountaineers 33-15 over the remaining 13:52 to send the game into overtime.
We had some opportunities to pull away and just couldn't get the stops necessary, and then when we got the stops, we couldn't get the rebounds, West Virginia coach Ross Hodge said afterward. We didn't do a great job with some of our ball screen coverages and then they are kind of shooting it to the other side of the basket and going and getting it.”
The two teams produced nine points in the first extra session before the Buckeyes got one more than the Mountaineers in the second overtime to secure its second extra-session win over West Virginia in Cleveland since 2023.
That year, Ohio State edged West Virginia 78-75 when Josh Eilert was the Mountaineers' interim coach.
West Virginia led for the majority of tonight's game but couldn't make the winning plays when it needed them down the stretch.
Neither team shot the ball particularly well, Ohio State connecting on 43.8% of its field goal attempts compared to just 39.7% for West Virginia, but the Buckeyes had a 48 to 22 advantage in paint scoring and benefitted from 15 Mountaineer turnovers, four by way of players stepping on the end line while driving to the basket.
They have 10 turnovers and we have 15, and you've just got to be able to execute down the stretch and make the simple play, Hodge said. When we executed what we wanted, we had a pretty high success rate and just got to learn from it.
West Virginia falls to 8-4 with tonight's loss and is out of power conference opportunities outside of Big 12 play to put on its March postseason resume.
WVU was unable to close out Clemson in Charleston, South Carolina, back on Nov. 21 and lost to Xavier two days later. Then last Saturday, Wake Forest downed the Mountaineers 75-66 in Charleston.
West Virginia's lone power conference victory came against 5-6 Pitt in Morgantown back on Nov. 13.
We had a couple opportunities to get some quality wins in the nonleague and didn't take advantage of it, but the bright side is we play in one of the best leagues in the country and there are going to be a lot of opportunities moving forward, Hodge said.
West Virginia returns to Hope Coliseum to face Mississippi Valley State next Monday, Dec. 22. The Mountaineers will then start Big 12 Conference play in earnest at fourth-ranked Iowa State on Friday, Jan. 2.
