Lucas was good. Turner was better. (AP: Conroy)Ohio State placed four in double figures led by Evan Turner's 18 as Matta's crew ran away from Michigan State 82-70 this afternoon in Indianapolis.
Turner's second half explosion (18 pts, 6 reb, 2 asst) earned some MVP chants late while his teammates stepped up en masse. The biggest contributions came from Jon Diebler (17 pts, 5 reb), Wil Buford (14 pts, 9 reb) and B.J. Mullens (12 pts, 5 reb).
The collective effort at point guard was also serviceable, against POY Kalin Lucas no less, with P.J. Hill notching six points and four dimes and Jeremie Simmons chipping in eight points. The combined 14 points from "Hill-mons" fell short of Lucas' 17 but the juco duo dished out six assists compared to one for Lucas. Hmmm...Surprisingly, Ohio State seized control early unleashing a 14-3 run over seven minutes turning a 12-9 deficit into a 23-15 cushion with 6:41 left in the first half. Diebler and Simmons sparked the run with five points each while the mostly zone defense held MSU to 1/10 during the stretch with five turnovers.
Sharty would trim the lead to a point twice late in the half but would get no closer than five the rest of the day thanks to hot shooting and tough defense out of Ohio State.
The Buckeyes simply dominated the action shooting 53% from the floor including 56% from deep (9/16) while the zone held Izzo's boys to 3/21 from long range (14%) and 38% overall. OSU also came up large at the stripe hitting 79% (23/29) yielding a 10 point differential from the line.
As usual, it was a tough day on the offensive boards as OSU surrendered 17 o-caroms against just five of their own but they made plays down the stretch and converted 11/14 free throws over the final five minutes to seal the deal.
For all the shots Matta's taken this year, the zone certainly paid off today and he once again has his team playing its best basketball when it matters most. OSU has now won four in a row and five of the last six, surely improving their seed along the way.
The Buckeyes await the Illinois/Purdue winner with tip off scheduled for 3:30 and Matta looking for his second conference tournament title in three years. Good stuff.
Comments
wish everyone would play man D on us, Diebler getting 17 makes us next to unbeatable
Don't think Izzo liked that last 3 by Diebs, it got kinda icy at the post game handshake
Great performance by the Buckeyes. They muscled down low, they hit perimeter shots, their zone defense completely waxed MSU's outside shooting, they hit their free throws. That will get you to 80 points, which is something we just don't see very often from Big Ten teams. They're going to be a pretty popular sleeper pick if they have a good showing tomorrow.
PJ Hill + Simmons= Championship
PJ's got his swag going:
"Yeah, we watch TV, and we've heard people talking about Michigan State getting a No. 1 seed. We were like, 'Not on our watch, not on our watch.'"
im sorry but pj hill is horrible
He's certainly no Mike Conley, but horrible might be a little strong.
tough shit for him.... play till the clock says zero and quit crying.
........now Purdue-- time to open up a giant can of whoop ass ......
Big-10 champs by 6pm!
If Diebler, Mullens and Lauderdale can keep stepping it up we are pretty good. Simmons off the bench is good too. I like the way we are playing right now
I really like the way that way that the team is playing right now, but in the future (next season) I would like to see Turner run a little more point forward because it always seems to bode well when he is in control of the offense. Louisville runs it to perfection with their sf whose name I can't recall and even with Hill and Simmons playing better, I still cringe when they try to thread the needle. Back when I was playing ball out team didn't really have a true point so we just got the ball into the hands of the player who took care of the ball the best. He was 6'4" and we had players that were under 6'1".
Off-topic a bit, but I'm out of town (and out of the BTN footprint). Did anyone catch Eddie's new show last night? Thoughts?
If we dont win the championship, Matta should be fired.
On second thought, Gene Keady's hair is out of hound.
"Sharty" classic line!
your right, it is. he plays hard. but truthfully, you can rationalize all you want, but hes just not that good imo.
he's improved with the more minutes he's been given lately. he isn't ever going to be our chris paul, but i no longer wait for a turnover whenever he touches the ball and i think he's a great energy guy for us. i've got no problems with him starting
I'm pleasantly surprised. The guys are playing super basketball now and it's great to see. It would be something else if they beat Purdue for the B10 championship.