D.J. Newbill was visibly frustrated. Nothing he was used to happening was working. He looked lost.
It was understandable, too. He had been hounded by Ohio State's Sam Thompson all evening and nothing was going right for his Penn State team trying to pull an upset at the Schottenstein Center.
Newbill, the Big Ten's leading scorer averaging around 21 points per game, was held to just 16 in Wednesday night's 75-55 loss to the 23rd-ranked Buckeyes. He made just 5 of his 13 attempts from the field and committed a pair of turnovers.
“Tonight, I thought we were active," Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said following the win over the Nittany Lions. "Penn State can cause some problems for you and obviously when you have a player the caliber of Newbill and how he can score so many different ways, we had to be a little bit more creative in terms of what we did."
It seems like that's been somewhat of a trend of late for the Buckeyes, though. They seem to have gotten back to their ways of playing the hard-nosed, in-your-face man-to-man defense Matta is known for.
In fact, over the last four games — Ohio State is 3-1 — no team has scored more than 60 points against the Buckeyes. Opponents have shot just a dismal 32.7 percent against them during that stretch.
"We've really keyed in on our schemes," Thompson said. "We've done what we've wanted to do on the defensive end and controlled the game from that standpoint so we just gotta keep building on it."
“Anytime I can take an opposing team's best player, really try to make it tough for him, try to take them out of what they want to do, it makes it that much easier on the offensive end.”– Sam Thompson
The Buckeyes believe their defense has helped their offense of late, too.
"When we can get stops and get rebounds and get out in transition, that's when we're at our best," Thompson said. "Anytime I can take an opposing team's best player, really try to make it tough for him, try to take them out of what they want to do, it makes it that much easier on the offensive end."
Ohio State has surged of late, winning five of its last six games. A large part of that has been because of the improved play on the defensive end of the floor, specifically over the last four games. The Buckeyes are currently tied with Maryland for second in the Big Ten with an 8-4 league record.
Michigan State, Purdue and Iowa also each have four conference losses.
In order to keep pace with those teams — and possibly surge ahead of them — over the last month of the season, Ohio State will need to continue its recent defensive prowess.
The next step is a trip to the Breslin Center on Saturday for a date with the Spartans.
"We obviously have some things to prove on the road but I think we’re playing good basketball at both ends," Thompson said. "We’re doing the type of things that we're supposed to be in February, so we just gotta keep getting better, keep doing better, keep building on it."
