Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Take Season-opener with Win over Wisconsin Green Bay
By John Porentas

The lights went on for real for the first time this season at the Value City Arena. When they did the Buckeyes (1-0) shined for a 91-68 win over Wisconsin-Green Bay (1-1) in the first round of the preseason NIT tournament.

The Buckeyes fell to a humiliating defeat to Findlay in their second exhibition game a week ago, but were sharp against the Phoenix. Othello Hunter and Kostas Koufos dominated down low and guards Jamar Butler and David Lighty were more than Green Bay could handle. Lighty led all scorers with a career-high 21 points and Butler recorded a double-double with 17 points and 10 assists while not turning the ball over a single time.

The Buckeyes surprised Green Bay with a 3-2 zone defense that led to 36.9 per cent shooting from the field for the Phoenix.

"We weren't anticipating seeing zone tonight, so give Thad credit for that," said Green Bay Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk.

"As well as we shoot the basketball, that's really our strength, I don't think we'll see much zone this year, but we'll have to get better at playing a zone, and they're a very long team playing that 3-2 zone and covering a lot of ground and we had problems with it," Kowalczyk said.

While Green Bay was struggling from the field the Buckeyes were hot. They hit just over 52 per cent from the field including a blazing 45.8 per cent from beyond the three point arc.

"They really made shots tonight. If they can make shots like they did tonight they're going to beat an awful lot of teams, if they can do that," said Kowalczyk.

Butler was five-of-seven from three point range and Lighty two of three, but it was Koufos who stunned the Phoenix. The seven-foot freshman hit two of three three point attempts to go with his scoring down low. Koufos finished with 18 points in his collegiate debut.

"I told our players coming in that this is a big time guy that can score in a variety of ways," said Kowalczyk.

"He can score in the post, he's the best low-post scorer that I've seen as a freshman come into a major program in a while. He's so quick down low, but he can shoot from the perimeter as well. If there's a better freshman post guy in the country I want to see him. That kid is a heck of a player."

Hunter was OSU's other double-figure scorer matching Butler with 17. Hunter was just too quick for the Phoenix down low and was able to score in the post as well as in transition.

Green Bay played the Buckeyes tough in the first ten minutes of the game and led 22-17 at the 10:36 mark, but went cold from the field against the OSU zone to allow the Buckeyes to outscore them 29-12 over the last 10:36 and effective put away the game.

OSU outscored Green Bay 45-34 in the second half .

The Buckeyes will take on Columbia in the second round of the tournament on Tuesday at Value City Arena.

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