Men's Basketball
No. 18 Ohio State Mauls Lions
By John Porentas
Sometimes it just all goes right.
With time winding down in the first half, OSU guard Sylvester Mayes found himself trapped on the baseline with no place to go. Mayes saw an open teammate and snapped off a crisp behind-the-back pass the set up teammate Ron Lewis for an open three. Lewis hit it with just six seconds left to put OSU up 58-29.
The play brought the crowd to its feet, but after the game, Mayes came clean. The pass was never intended for Lewis.
"I saw another one of my teammates. I saw Matt Terwilliger but, hey, but we'll take it," said Mayes.
"I was just trying to create, do something for the team. Luckily Ron Lewis was there to get it."
That one was lucky, but the rest of the game was simply a clinic as the No. 18 Buckeyes (11-0, 1-0 Big Ten) completely dominate Penn State (8-4, 0-1 Big Ten) by a final score of 104-69 in the Big Ten opener for both teams.
The Lions were able to hang with the Buckeyes for about six minutes and led at 11-10, but a Buckeye run of 20-4 turned that lead into a 30-15 lead for OSU and all-but ended the game.
Penn State played off the Buckeyes defensively on the perimeter, and OSU made them pay. Ohio State shot 63.2% from the field (67.6% in the first half) and 45.5% from three point range (53.3% in the first half).
"The beat us from start to finish. It was a great performance shooting the basketball," said Penn State Head Coach Ed DeChellis.
"I've never really seen a team shoot the ball the way they shot the ball. It wasn't just one guy, it was everybody."
"Once they made a little run we just didn't do anything that we were supposed to do. I've never seen a team shoot as well as they did. Defensively we didn't do a very good job."
The Buckeyes got the job done shooting the basketball, but they were definitely aided by Penn State's defensive style.
"They were a team that was playing back off of us, so we got a lot of good looks. We take every shot with confidence. Every time we took a shot we were just confident in our minds that we were going to be able to make plays.
"In our film sessions we saw that that's how they play defense. I guess that's how they're coached," said OSU's Ron Lewis who led all scorers with 26 points. Lewis was 10-of-11 from the field and five-of-six from three point land. Forward J. J. Sullinger had a perfect night shooting, going eight-for-eight from the field that included two three-points.
Defensively, OSU produced nine steals and forced a total of 20 turnovers. The Buckeyes turned the all over just nine times and had 28 assists. Both Jamar Butler and Sylvester Mayes totaled nine assists to lead OSU.
OSU Head Coach Thad Matta was surprised by the ease of the win.
"Honestly I would never have predicted this. I thought we played extremely well out of the gates.
"I thought we did a great job of sharing the basketball tonight, which was something that we really talked about going into the game," Matta said.
Ohio State's 58 points at the half were the most scored by Ohio State in a half since a 62-point second half at Penn State in March, 2001.
With his 18 points, Sullinger surpassed the 1,000 point mark in his career. Sullinger has now scored 1,001.
Game Photos
Box Score
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