Men's Basketball
Team Effort by Buckeyes Overcomes Brilliant Shooting Night by Retrievers
By John Porentas

Ohio State (9-3) closed out its pre-conference schedule by overcoming a torrid shooting performance by the University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers (8-5) for a 92-83 win at Value City Arena.

The Retrievers got an amazing shooting performance from 6-2 senior guard Ray Barbosa. Barbosa knocked down eight of 14 three point attempts to tie the school record for made threes in a game. Barbosa scored a game-high 32 points.

"I guess I found my stroke," said a modest Barbosa.

"The last couple games I was kind of off. I wanted to get out of that slump a little bit. Coach told me to shoot the ball. Tonight I came out and did that."

His effort, heroic as it was, wasn't enough.

Five Buckeyes scored in double figures as OSU simply outscored Barbosa and the Retrievers to register the win. Barbosa's shooting was impressive, but OSU sharpshooters Jamar Butler and Jon Diebler weren't exactly shabby either. Butler scored a team-high 22 points that included nine-of-nine shooting from the free throw line. Diebler continued his recent hot shooting by knocking down five of nine three point attempts. Evan Turner added 17 for OSU, Othello Hunter 13 and Kosta Koufos 12.

OSU's .435 shooting from three wasn't far behind UMBC's .486. Where the Buckeyes earned their advantage was at the free throw line. Turner and Butler took the ball to the rim and when they didn't score the basket, drew fouls. Turner added a 10 of 12 free throw attempts night to Butlers perfect night. For the game, the Buckeyes attempted 31 from the charity stripe and converted 26 of them. By contrast, UMBC made just four of 10.

The Buckeyes got to the free throw line, made threes and turned the ball over just 10 times, yet as the game wound down the Retrievers simply would not fold. They continued to hit shots and compete, and despite having been down by as many as 17 in the second half, actually worked their way back into striking distance late in the game. Barbosa knocked down three of his three pointers between the 3:31 mark of the second half and the 1:33 mark, the last one cutting OSU's lead to just six at 83-77. The shooting, combined with the fact that the Retrievers turned the ball over just five times, had the makings for an interesting finish, but the Buckeyes wouldn't cave. The Buckeyes made six-consecutive free throws while holding UMBC off the board to go back up by 12 and put the game out of reach.

"They've been in tough matchups, played in the national championship game, so they're a good team, but I think we put a little big of fear in their heart when we hit a couple to cut it down to six, but it turned out they won the game," said Barbosa.

The Buckeyes came away from the game with a huge dose of respect for the gritty Retrievers.

"He (Barbosa) was hitting challenged shots with hands in his face," said Butler.

"He played great today. He made some tough shots. There's nothing you can do about it.

"They made tough shots. Other teams missed those shots. They made some tough ones."

"They were incredible today from beyond the arc," said Matta.

"I give our guys credit.

"We never quit playing offensively and were able to shoot the ball well ourselves.

"I don't know if I've ever seen a team catch fire the way they did there and really did a magnificent job of taking care of the ball and getting shots.

"17-35 (from three), I don't know if I've seen too many teams do that, let alone teams I've coached against," Matta said.

"I think our guys kept saying they can't hit another one, they can't hit another one, and they kept making them. I think their final one was a bank in which capped it off pretty nicely."

Several milestones were reached in the game. UMBC's 17 threes was a team record. Butler added 12 assists to his line, a career high. His career assist total is now 428 which moved him into third place all time on the OSU assist list past Ron Stokes. OSU's 92 points is a season-high for the Buckeyes

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