Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Lose White Knuckler in Evanston
By John PorentasThe last 20 seconds of the of Northwestern's 72-69 win over Ohio State (17-7, 7-6 Big Ten) had a lot in common with the way the first 39 minutes and 40 seconds were played.
In those last 20 seconds Ohio State's Jon Diebler made a clutch play, a Northwestern Wildcat made a three pointer, and a Buckeye made a critical mental error on defense. There was plenty of all that early in the game, but it's last 20 seconds that everyone is going to remember.
For Diebler's part, he was remarkable from start to finish against the Wildcats (14-10, 5-8 Big Ten). He scored a career-high 28 points on nine of 11 shooting from the field that included an incredible eight of 10 from three point range. His lone two point field goal was huge. With the Buckeyes trailing by two and less that 20 seconds left to play Diebler made a steal and went the length of the court to lay in the ball and tie the game with around 10 second left to play.
Diebler's heroics came at the end of a game marked by tremendous three point shooting not only by Diebler, but also by Northwestern's Kevin Coble and Craig Moore. Coble knocked down four of six and Moore seven of 12. The two combined for 49 points against the Buckeyes. Coble and Moore were impressive, but according to Thad Matta, OSU's lack of intensity on the defensive end of the court, especially in the second half, also had a bit to do with their success.
"We didn't have what we needed defensively tonight mentally, energy wise, to win this basketball game," said Matta.
"We let the same thing happen to us twice, two, three, four times and never really got adjusted to what we really needed to do. Never really found the shooters in the corners, that type of thing," Matta said.
Much of the Northwestern success on the offensive end came in the second half. OSU led by nine at the end of the first half, but an 18-3 run in early in the second half wiped out a 12 point OSU lead and put the Wildcats in front. The Wildcat run was fueled by the shooting of Coble and Moore and a rash of turnovers by the Buckeyes. After playing man to man in the first half the Wildcats went to a 1-3-1 zone in the second half that seemed to befuddle the Buckeyes.
"In the second half we played more 1-3-1 on the defensive end. For a good stretch we got stops," said Coble.
"The second half they were getting open shots," said Diebler.
"We played well in the first half, did what we were supposed to do. Then in the second half we came out soft and they made us pay. They got us really spread out and starting hitting shots, so you have to give them a lot of credit."
Northwestern's run was also keyed by a complete turnaround in the battle of the backboard. In building a nine point halftime lead the Buckeyes outrebounded Northwestern 21-9 in the first half. In the second half the Wildcats won the battle of the boards out of their zone to the tune of 15-9.
"We got on the backboards in the second half. That was huge for us, and we were coming down on offense and really getting whatever we wanted by being patient. We got some wide open shots," said Coble.
"We were more aggressive and it seemed like they weren't going as hard to the basket, like they were almost conceding rebounds to us.
"We did a good job when the ball was going up of putting bodies on people."
The Wildcats led by five at 69-64 with 2:05 remaining but William Buford made his first shot of the game, a three pointer, to cut the lead to 69-67 with :57 left in the game. Then with 20 seconds left to go, Diebler made his play to tie the game.
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody elected not to call time out after Diebler's made field goal, opting to not let the Buckeye defense get set up and make them think on the fly. That's when the critical defensive error got made.
Wildcat guard Michael Thompson sprinted the ball up court and was headed toward the basket near the top of the key. Thompson was not going to be able to get off any kind of under control shot. and was not a threat to win the game. For some reason, Buford decided to come off his man to help challenge the driving Thompson. His man was freshman John Shurna who was standing just outside the three point line. Thompson saw the open Shurna and got the ball to him, and with 3.3 seconds left he drilled the game winning three pointer.
"Buford came off a little and Thompson made a good pass," said Shurna.
Buford's mistake and Shurna's shot made for a dramatic win for the Wildcats who lost heartbreaking close games to both Illinois and Michigan in their last two outings. It also snapped a 17-game OSU winning streak against Northwestern.
"Illinois came back and beat us, Michigan beat us in a close game. I'm really happy for our guys," said Carmody.
Now the Buckeyes have suffered consecutive close losses, both on the road, to Wisconsin by five last Saturday and then the loss to Northwestern. For Diebler, the sting of the defeat at the hands of the Wildcats took all the joy out of his performance.
"It doesn't really mean anything. I'll take zero points and a win any day. We didn't execute in the second half and give credit to Northwestern, they played well."
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