This one was on its way to being a laugher after a Deon Thompson lay up gave North Carolina a bulging 55-36 lead over Ohio State with 10:26 to play but the Buckeyes outscored UNC 37-22 down the stretch before falling 4 points shy in the Garden.
Five points from David Lighty in the final minute cut the deficit to 74-70 with :22 left before a Jon Diebler triple trimmed it 75-73 with :15 but Larry Drew hit two clutch free throws after PJ Hill was forced to foul providing the final margin.
Though the Buckeyes can take a lot from the comeback, they were never really in sync as North Carolina used significant size and athleticism advantages on the defensive end to stifle ball movement and push the offense away from the hoop while building what became an insurmountable 38-24 lead at intermission. The first half saw OSU shoot a dreadful 29% (9/31) from the floor including a frigid 1/10 from downtown behind cold starts from Wil Buford (2/10) Jon Diebler (1/6) while Evan Turner coughed it up 5 times.
Even with the rally, the Buckeyes shot just 42% from the floor (30% 3FG) with Buford and Diebler combining on a 7/29 stinker. Both needed to show up for OSU to have any chance especially with Turner struggling to command the offense. ET did finish with 23 points and 8 boards but his 10 turnovers caused too many empty possessions to overcome.
David Lighty contributed 13 points (5/10) and 6 boards to go with Dielber's 17 and Buford's 8.
In addition to showing some moxie over the final 10 minutes the Buckeyes can take some solace in the fact they were game on the glass losing the battle 32-31 while forcing 20 turnovers. Lauderdale was a bit overmatched due to wave of bigs UNC threw at the small OSU front line but he did add 6 boards and 2 blocks in his second game back from a broken finger.
As expected, Matta showed some zone though he may have forced to play even more than he planned thanks to foul trouble. Turner picked up his 2nd with 11:26 left in the first half, his 3rd just 2 minutes into the second while Lauderdale recorded his 4th with 16:18 left in the game. The quick whistles worked both ways, however as UNC hit 18/25 (72%) while OSU shot 15/22 (68%).
The loss means the Buckeyes will take on California at 5pm tomorrow in the 3rd place game of 2K Sports Classic courtesy of a 95-73 beating handed down by Syracuse.
Comments
I'm pleased with the comeback, but it was clear that this front court is not good. OSU will have to shoot better to win games because a trio of Two Cities, Madsen and Zisis is not going to get it done. Dallas is a solid defensive player which is fine with me, but Madsen looked completely lost, often, and Zisis is well, Zisis.
Hopefully our bigs can improve because if not, it's going to be a rough trip. There's not much depth there.
Just wish they would have let them play instead of calling a foul on every thing, both sides.
Buford sucks - 3 out of 16. He was peeing down his leg. Every team has one - called gunner.
diagree. buford does not suck.
the good news - with the turnovers, poor shooting, missed free throws, foul trouble, and kyle madsen sighting, the final margin was only four points. the buckeyes cant play much worse than that, and its only november.
march is a long way away.
go bucks.
Buford doesn't suck, but he needs to develop a 2nd part of his game..... because when his shooting is off he is worthless.
Also, the Evan Turner at PG experiment should be over, 2 assists and 10 turnovers is bad......but not his fault. I though he played better at the 2 when PJ Hill was at the 1. Whether you like PJ or not, it is better for Turner.
I disagree...
Turner, is going to need time to develope. He will be fine!
I actuall saw some things i liked.
1: he is always going to outrebound the other guy.
2: he is going to be able to post up, and play down low.
3: he just needs to be more controlled when driving agressivley, which i didn't see last night.
That was a good defense last night, everyone had turnover problems!
I see Ohio state winning that game if they could make a shoot.
Looked like the freaking national championship against florida. If we just hit 2 3 pointers we when the game.
Turner probably would have had more assists if his associates could hit *anything* from outside.
They were completely dominating us inside, and with the front court they have, it's going to be tough to avoid that. We had a bunch of open enough looks at threes in the first half. We knock down even close to a normal % of those and this is a very different ballgame.
It felt like our whole first half was "pass to Buford, Buford for three, brick." Buford was a good player having an off night at first, but he definitely let it get to him and start forcing shots that he really shouldn't have taken towards the end of the first half.
Also, the refs were calling way more offensive fouls and traveling than most. I wonder if a lot of the stuff Turner was getting called for he normally gets away with. He definitely seemed frustrated by it. The good news is that most of his turnovers were off of that and not off of errant passes or similar stupidity.
+1
He's a pretty boy. He never ever sweats. All he does is shoot, shoot shoot. It's only November I get that but he was terrible. Pass the ball Buford - forgot he's a pretty boy and only shoots or misses.
In my opinion, with our size and athletes we should be running and pressing at every opportunity. We have enough guards to rotate in to keep guys fresh. There's no way we were gonna beat North Carolina in a half court game last night. Syracuse is gonna pack the paint with their zone defense and force NC to beat them by making 3's. Prediction: Syracuse 75 NC 65
Couldn't press, had too many fouls.
He lacks "toughness". And "guts". And "heart". And "poise".
Not a real "coach's son" or another abstract concept.
I'm gonna have to correct you. Not everyone had Turnover problems last night.
Madsen had 2
Buford had 2
Lauderdale had 1
Dieble had 1
and Turner had 10
Turner is the ONLY guy who had turnover problems last night...... I don't blame Turner though, he is playing out of position. He is a SG or a SF, put Hill and Simmons back at the Point. Hill can't shoot outside and Simmons has travelling problems......but combined they won't get 10 turnovers, AND it opens up more shots for Turner who is our best offensive player.
I guess that's where the problem started. I'm not sure how Matta thought we were gonna defend them man to man to begin with. The match up problems were obvious from the start. If we play them 10 times could we win 3 games?
All ignorant BS. Buford is a great player.
No, UNC has the BEST frontcourt tandem in the country, I will not be surprised if they win it all again. It's obvious OSU is not a national title competitor this year, or B10 for that matter.
i'm not sure anything is obvious on november 20th in college basketball.
I'm sure you could dunk on his face with ease.
You realize I was joking, right?
Would have been nice to see the team show up for the first 10 minutes of the game. I don't know who those guys were who were wearing the OSU jerseys in that span but they didn't look like our guys.
So much pain could be avoided if a team plays with intensity right from the start.
You see Matta light them up after that lackluster start.
Missed that. That must have been during one of my trips to the fridge.
His face was all red and he almost lost his gum.
Good players play well great players win championships.
He was sweating more than the team!
Get the hell out of here gobucks we don't want to see you say derogatory things about a great player because he had an off night.