Men's Basketball
Shooting Stars Abound in OSU's 93-81 Win Over Indiana
By John PorentasThere was no full moon in Bloomington tonight, but there were a few shooting stars.
Early on OSU Head Coach Thad Matta thought there might be some kind of full moon, the kind that makes weird things happen. For starters, the Buckeyes (15-5, 5-4 Big Ten) had it all switched around as far as how their games normally play out.
"I told the guys during one the time outs that this is the antithesis of how we've been playing," said Matta when his team fell behind 24-12 to the Hoosiers early in the game.
"We always start games real well, and then in the last eight minutes don't play well. I told them you just flip-flopped it on me today. I'm OK with that but we better be really good here the next 32 minutes."
The Buckeyes took the advice to heart and went on a 16-4 run to tie the game at 28 when Jeremie Simmons took his turn as a shooting star by draining a three pointer to bring the game back to even. Shooting remained the theme the rest of the game, particularly from the perimeter and the free throw line.
The Buckeye shot 52 percent from the field in the first half, Indiana (5-15, 0-8) 46.4 percent, but it was the three point shooting of Hoosier freshman Matt Roth that stood out the most. Roth nailed four of five from long distance, and for Roth, it was just a warmup of bigger and better things to come.
In the second half Roth made five of six for three for a game total of nine of 11, in the processing becoming the first freshman in Big Ten history to make nine threes in a game.
"The more we found him the deeper and deeper he went," said OSU forward Evan Turner explaining how Roth got off so many threes.
"He was probably about 37 feet out on one of them.
"He had a good day shooting. I've got to give it to him. He made shots. He shot so deep.
"He found himself open a little bit, but anytime you can shoot from 37 feet out we're going to give it to you," said Turner.
"There was one he shot in my face, he was over by the coaching box. I looked at him like 'What?'" said Jon Diebler.
"He's a great shooter. We knew he could shoot the ball. I think he did a very nice job tonight, played with a lot of confidence and knocked down some big shots for him. That's what he does and I think he did a very nice job of it."
As great as his performance was, he was outshone by a shooting performance by the Buckeyes that featured not just one star but a mini-galaxy of stars.
OSU shot an incredible 76.2 percent from the field in the second half including 77.8 percent (seven of nine) from three point range. For the game, Evan Turner went 10 of 14 from the field to tie Roth for game-high scoring honors with 29. Jon Diebler was six of eight from the field, William Buford eight of 12, and Jeremie Simmons five of eight. The quartet of Turner, Diebler, Buford and Simmons combined for all but two of OSU's 93 points.
"It's really a hard situation there because they have so many guys that can score," said Indiana Head Coach Tom Crean who elected to play a box and one defense against Diebler at times.
"They have four perimeter people.
"Two of the tougher matchups in the league, and really you could make a case for this in the country.
"Evan Turner is as hard a matchup as there is. It's not just lets try to take Jon Diebler out of it, it's to try to control the paint because Evan Turner does a fantastic job of driving the basketball, he gets to the foul line, he has the respect of the officials, he does an excellent job of doing the things he needs to do.
"We wanted to make it as hard for Diebler as we could. We did in the first half. It wasn't as hard for him in the second half obviously. I hate that old saying 'Pick your poison,' I don't like it, but this is kind of one of those game with Buford who is tremendous and Simmons is shooting the ball with confidence. They can put four perimeters out there. You don't really think you're going to lose a game when Lauderdale and Mullens combine for zero points. You think you're going to have a heck of chance, but they really do shoot and drive the ball very well."
Crean's strategy worked well against Diebler, limiting him to just three points in the first half, but the play of Turner, Buford and Simmons force the Hoosiers out of the gimmick defense.
"When they concentrate on one player and we're moving the ball around we're going to get some good shots," said Buford.
"They were playing a box and one. Once I got going they had to play fair and go man," added Turner.
Once they did, Diebler responded with 18 in the second half. Buford finished with 24 and Simmons 21. OSU's post players, Dallas Lauderdale, B. J. Mullens and Kyle Madsen did not score in the game. The only player to score other than Turner, Diebler, Buford and Simmons was point guard P. J. Hill who made two free throws late in the game.
Matta enjoyed his team's outburst on offense, but warned that they could not count of that kind shooting and offense to win games in the future.
"It's one of those games where I was happy with the way we shot but I'd like to see if the shots weren't going in how we would have guarded anybody when it was do or die," said Matta.
"We were perfectly content tonight to trade baskets. We were perfectly content with that. I've had teams that had games like that. When you're making shots at one end you just say 'Hey, that's all right if they score on us. We're going to go down and score on the other end.' We can't win basketball games that way very often."
Still, Matta enjoyed seeing the shooting stars come out, at least for one game.
"That was a shooting performance by both teams you don't see very often.," said Matta, who then threw a little cold water on the performance with a reminder of his team's lapses on defense.
"As I told the guys, we were lucky to come out of here with a win."
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