Ohio State kept their NCAA tourney hopes alive with a crushing 28-9 run over the final 12 minutes to capture a 63-54 victory over #18 Michigan State this afternoon in the Schott.
Senior Jamar Butler led the Buckeyes with 20 points including a perfect 8/8 from the stripe during the decisive burst. His biggest free throws gave OSU their first lead, 53-52, with just over 4 minutes to play and his final two capped the 100th victory of his, Wiggler's and Matta's (OSU) career.
David Lighty also came up big recording 12 points on a perfect 5/5 from the floor with 5 rebounds and a huge block of a Drew Neitzel's layup opportunity after Lighty was beaten badly on a backdoor cut. The defensive play ignited the crowd although they had to overcome an unwanted delay in the action after the shot clocks crapped out for the second consecutive game.
Down low, Othello Hunter followed up his strong showing against Purdue (15pt, 6reb, 3blk) with 13 points (6/9 FG), 4 o-boards, 2 steals and 2 dimes. The O-Hawk was huge down the stretch going 3/3 in the final five minutes with a tip-in and two dunks, one on a follow up of a Kosta Koufos miss extending OSU's lead to 59-54 with :55 left. That dunk and Lighty's block were easily the plays of the game in my mind.
Not coincidentally, give Thad some credit for ordering up the 2-2-1 three-quarter court press at about the 10 minute mark of the second half. The press forced Sparty into sloopy turnovers (17 total) including two shot clock violations in the last 4 minutes. The extra possessions, hot shooting (23/46 FG) and a 9 point edge at the stripe helped the Buckeyes offset a ridiculous 30-18 rebounding edge for Izzo's squad.
The Buckeyes trailed 31-23 at intermission after cutting the lead to 24-19 on a Butler three at 7:33 but could only muster 4 more points in the final 7 minutes shooting a frigid 2/8 with 3 turnovers.
The Spartans kept the momentum to start the second half extending their lead to as much as 12 before a 10-2 OSU run cut the lead to 37-33 with 15:39 remaining before MSU responded with an 8-2 run of their own to set up OSU's closing 28-9 blitzkrieg.
The victory gives OSU back to back wins over ranked opponents but they'll definitely need to beat Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament on Friday (2:30pm ESPN). If the Buckeyes pull that off, they'll still likely need a win over Wisconsin on Saturday to have a realistic shot to secure a dance bid. Many 'experts' have said it might even take a conference tournament championship to earn a berth.
Koufos was the only other Buckeye in double figures (11pts, 3reb) while Raymar Morgan paced MSU with 19 points and 6 rebounds.
Comments
Nice win for the seniors. 100 wins in a career is something to be proud of and its good to see that this group didn't phone it in after the awful stretch earlier. Fingers crossed for the tourney!
I can't believe that we'd need to win the Big 10 tourney to get into the dance. Given the way Florida has sucked recently, you'd have to figure two back to back wins over ranked opponents should do the trick.
I think a win Friday would put us at about 70% chance to get in. If we beat both MSU and Wisky then I think we're at about 90%. You just never know what's gonna happen in the conf tournaments. We need the favorites to take care of business and keep any longshots like Arkansas last year from stealing an at-large bid.
Bucks should be in the dance w or wo a win on Friday. 10-8 in B10 + 2 quality wins to end the season is probably enough. They were also helped by Minnesota losing their last two and creating some separation for a 5th B10 team into the tourney. I like the fact that they displayed some heart and played two of their best games of the year. Hats off to the seniors.
How lucky is he?
http://cache.deadspin.com/asse...
he's extremely unlikely because he goes to michigan state and he'll be rubbing rabbit fur on his dick tonight
He said rabbit fur.
Chris, you're assuming this is the average crop of teams....look around the NCAA, this is a rather PATHETIC crop of teams to pick from. tOSU is most likely around 70% now because, as unfair as it is, having a big name and late in the year big wins really does make a difference. I think we'd be 99% if we beat MSU again and a lock if we beat Wisconsin.
Wil...agreed the bubble teams aren't an impressive lot but I worry about what happens if OSU beats MSU then runs out of gas and loses by 10+ to Wisconsin.
If that happened the Buckeyes would still be only 3-5 in the last 8 games with two wins over MSU and one over Purdue but with bad losses to Michigan and Minnesota. On the season, they'd finish 3-10 against the RPI top 50.
To have the Iowa and Michigan games back. 21-10 looks a lot better than 19-12.
That was fun. Let's do it again Friday.
[...] Ohio State’s tournament hopes. MSU became sloppy with the rock in the second half and fell to Ohio State 63-54 on Sunday. Sparty has been plagued by turnovers all season averaging 14 per game on the season, it [...]