Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Put Runs on Blue Hose for Lopsided Win
By John Porentas

Ohio State (6-3) put together a 16-0 run to turn an early 14-11 Presbyterian College (1-11) lead into 27-14 Buckeye lead, then went on to an easy 87-43 win on a snowy day in Columbus.

Presbyterian College took the early lead largely on the strength of strong work on the offensive boards. The Blue Hose had four offensive rebounds in the first 6:38 of the game that led directly to eight of their 11 points.

"The first seven they missed they got four of them back," said OSU Head Coach Matta.

Matta found a solution for the problem.

"Subs," said Matta, "There were some quick substitutions there."

The Buckeyes finally got control of the defensive backboard and when they did, got control of the game. After grabbing a total of nine rebounds in the first 8:07 of the first half the Blue Hose managed just two more in the second half and only three total rebounds in the second half.

"We were out there in a zone defense and it's tough to rebound out of a zone," said Blue Hose Head Coach Gregg Nibbert.

OSU's dominance on the glass after the first 8:07, combined with an effective press by the Buckeyes, was too much for the Blue Hose. OSU's pressure defense resulted in 10 Buckeye steals and 20 first turnovers by the Blue Hose. The Buckeyes also shot extremely well, particularly in the second half. OSU set a Value City Arena record going 25-49 (.714) which also ranks second all-time in Ohio State history. The Buckeyes were 20-26 in the second half (769). OSU's high shooting percentage was keyed by their ability to get the ball down low to 7-0 center Kosta Koufos who made eight of nine field goal attempts. All of his field goals except one came from in close. The lone exception was a half-ending three pointer by Koufos that staked OSU to a 40-20 lead at the intermission.

"We put a premium on shooting the ball the last few weeks," said Matta. "It was good to see us finally make some shots," Matta said.

"We shot the ball well in practice all week," said OSU senior guard Jamar Butler. "I guess practice pays off."

After closing out the first half by outscoring the Blue Hose 26-11 over the last 12 minutes the Buckeyes opened the second half with a 25-3 run to put the game out of reach.

Koufos led all scorers with 21 points. Senior guard Jamar Butler added 16 and senior forward Othello Hunter 13. Presbyterian College was led by Pat Kiscaden with 18 points on six of 11 shooting, all from three point range. Ohio State outscored the Blue Hose in the paint by a margin of 34-8.

Despite the one-sided game, Matta was not ready to talk about how much improvement his team is showing.

"I know that this team is not capable of accepting a lot of praise," said Matta.

"They have to be held feet-to-the-fire at all times, and I think that's a lot of maturity and understanding, because they don't probably yet have the appreciation for what it takes every single day to get better," Matta said.

Homecoming for Nibbert

Presbyterian College Head Basketball Coach Gregg Nibbert has led the Blue Hose program for 19 seasons. Nibbert is a Grove City, Ohio, native who was happy to be in Columbus despite the fact that his team took a pretty lopsided loss.

"You probably never saw a guy that was happy about a 44-point loss. One, I was happy it got over, " Nibbert said drawing a round of laughter from reporters.

"I'm proud to bring a basketball team to Columbus, Ohio being from Grove City and being a Buckeye fan my whole life, whether it be Jerry Lucas or John Havilicek or Mel Noel basketball-wise or watching Ohio State football with Rex Kern and Jim Otis. I was brought up on that.

"I wasn't a Buckeye fan today but as I told Thad after today I think we got his team going and he owes me a little bit more than that $60,000 they paid for us to come up here," Nibbert said again drawing laughter from reporters.

"Down the road in Grove City I saw some people that I haven't seen in years. I even had three guys that I went to Marietta College with that I hadn't seen in 25 years that came to the game, so it was really neat, really special for me, because never in my wildest dreams, when I got the job at Presbyterian we were NAIA, then we went Division II in 1993-94, and then for us to go Division I this year, to be with one school that long at three different levels, never in my wildest dreams that I think Presbyterian College would be playing the Ohio State Buckeyes and I'd be on the sideline. I wish it wasn't with a 40 point loss, but hopefully we can get better," Nibbert said.

Presbyterian College will be eligible to play in the Big South conference in the 2011-12 season.

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