COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State basketball’s win over Cincinnati on Wednesday night had a few similarities to its meeting in 2018.

In both season openers, Ohio State won 64-56, and both times it took the Buckeyes a half to find ways to generate efficient offense. The difference is this time is the decision to simplify the offense to combat the physical play of the Bearcats.

“I just didn’t think we were putting them in good enough positions in the first half offensively because they were taking us out of everything we’d wanted to run going into the game,” OSU coach Chris Holtmann said after the win. “We just tried to simplify it, and then they played off their instincts and gave us a rhythm.”

That consisted of high screen-and-rolls with a ball-handler and Kaleb Wesson, who spent the majority of the second half making plays from the perimeter. It was something you wouldn’t have seen last season. But it also meant that for the second straight year, Kyle Young would be the X-factor in the win. In Cincinnati in 2018, Young scored 10 points and pulled down eight rebounds, both career highs at that point.

This season he had those numbers by the end of the first half. As the only Buckeye in double figures, he ended the night with career highs in points and rebounds once again with 14 and 13, respectively.

“We were seeing the Kyle we’d seen all summer leading up to this game,” Kaleb Wesson said. “High energy guy who’s going to go out there and do the dirty work for you. That’s what we expect out of K-Y, and that’s what he gives us.”

In a game where Ohio State shot 31 percent in the first half, and Cincinnati shot 29.4 percent, “dirty work” may be the most valuable skill. That along with making 19-of-29 free throws allowed the Buckeyes win to a game where they didn’t make a field goal in the final 3:39.

“I would say it’s a game that you have to grind out,” Young said. “It’s a tough game, it’s going to be physical...It’s going to be a dogfight for real."

That seems to be what comes along with Game 1 of a college basketball season, especially when you’re playing other high-level teams. In the past two nights, there have been low-scoring games of 48-34 between Virginia and Syracuse — which shocked even Holtmann — and a Duke team that pulled out a two-point win while forcing Kansas to turn the ball over 28 times. Things aren’t going to look pretty for teams this early.

“You’re just not there yet in November,” Holtmann said. “But I thought we took some real strides forward. I thought our guys’ ability to adjust in the midst of the game to the physicality and to do some things differently said a lot about them.”

That is personified in the Buckeyes’ two point guards CJ Walker and DJ Carton combining for only four assists, but eight turnovers. As a coach who can at times be tough on his floor generals, Holtmann wasn’t too pleased with that stat, saying that his ideal assist-to-turnover ratio is 2-to-1.

“We had a couple of sloppy ones late,” Holtmann said. “We have to get better with that across the board.”

A positive take away for the Buckeyes in a game where physicality ruled supreme is the experience it gives Carton and EJ Liddell. The two were the only freshmen to see the floor in the win and probably got their best possible introduction into college basketball, especially coming off of an exhibition game that didn’t showcase much competition for very long. Carton finished Wedneday night with nine points while Liddell had five points.

“We had some rough moments there,” Holtmann said. “I think EJ’s first 5 to 8 minutes were ones that he’s going to reflect back on a little bit and say ‘Whoa, I thought I knew what was coming, but I had no idea.' But I thought he really responded and gave us good minutes in the second half.”

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