Stunning loss to Florida Atlantic could be damaging for Ohio State

Ohio State’s bid to avoid missing the NCAA tournament for a second straight season veered off course Tuesday night.

The Buckeyes suffered a damaging upset loss that will shrink their margin for error in the coming months.

With the score tied late in overtime, Florida Atlantic coach Michael Curry called a play for sophomore guard Nick Rutherford and told the rest of his team to get out of the way. Rutherford got Ohio State’s Kam Williams off balance with a crossover dribble, attacked the basket off the bounce and banked in the go-ahead runner with one second left, giving the Owls a stunning 79-77 road victory.

To put into perspective how dismal a loss this was for Ohio State, consider how bad Florida Atlantic has been recently.

The Owls went 8-25 last season and had shown no signs of improvement during a 2-5 start this season. Their five losses came against juggernauts Texas State, SIU Edwardsville, Hawaii, Tennessee Martin and Hofstra.

Florida Atlantic was a 21-point underdog at Ohio State (7-2), but the Owls never gave up even after falling behind by 11 with less than 10 minutes to go. Rutherford and Jeantal Cylla spearheaded a 14-0 surge, forcing the Buckeyes to scramble just to force overtime.

Ohio State might have won in regulation or in overtime had it shot better than 4 of 20 from behind the arc or had it not committed so many costly late turnovers. The last of which was a mishandled pass by Marc Loving with 26 seconds to go in overtime, enabling Florida Atlantic to hold for the last shot and paving the way for Rutherford’s heroics

Tuesday’s loss was reminiscent of Ohio State’s early woes last season when the Buckeyes fell at home against Louisiana Tech and Texas Arlington. Those losses contributed to relegating Ohio State to the NIT last March despite 20 wins and an 11-7 Big Ten record.

Ohio State hadn’t lost to anyone besides ACC power Virginia entering play Tuesday night, but the Buckeyes hadn’t beaten a surefire NCAA tournament team yet either. Their best win is a five-point victory over a Providence team in transition after Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil left for the NBA last spring.

The good news for Ohio State is there are plenty of opportunities left for marquee wins to atone for Tuesday’s loss. The bad news is the Buckeyes will have to play a lot better against the likes of UCLA, Indiana and Wisconsin to have any chance of winning.

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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