Christoph Tilly’s layup with 13 seconds left gave Ohio State a 64-63 win over Notre Dame in Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday.
The Buckeyes faced a 63-62 deficit coming out of a timeout with 23.8 seconds left before Tilly drove the lane for a lefthanded shot.
Markus Burton had a chance to win it for the Fighting Irish (3-1) but missed a 3-pointer with one second left.
Bruce Thornton scored 24 points and Tilly added 18 for the Buckeyes (4-0).
Burton led the Irish with 14 points, Jalan Haralson scored 13 and Braeden Shrewsberry had eight of his 11 points in the second half.
It was 59-59 when Thornton drained a 3-pointer with 3:52 left to break the fourth tie but the Fighting Irish would take a 63-62 lead on a Shrewsberry triple at 2:08.
The Buckeyes were down 11 in the first half before a pair of Tilly free throws made it 48-46 at the 10:12 mark of the second half for their first lead since it was 6-5 at 5:50 of the first half.
From there, the Buckeyes extended the lead to 59-53 but Notre Dame would not go away.
This was the first Power 5 opponent for each team this season.
The strategies were clear from the start: a battle of inside vs. outside. Notre Dame used its length to overpower the Buckeyes near the bucket while Ohio State preferred to set up the offense around the perimeter.
As a result, the Fighting Irish had 24-8 advantage in the paint in the first half while shooting 58.3%.
That left the Buckeyes to go 4 of 15 (26.7%) from 3-point range while Notre Dame attempted just four, making one, in the first 20 minutes.
It took Thornton awhile to get cooking and the Buckeye suffered for it. They trailed 21-10 without him contributing a point. From there he scored 11 of Ohio State’s next 21 , finishing with a fade jumper to cut the Fighting Irish lead to 34-31 at the half.
During that stretch he moved from 15th to 13th on the Ohio State career scoring list.
