Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Hold Off Wildcats for 52-47 win to Finish Fourth in Big Ten Regular Season Race
By John PorentasBoth Norhwestern and Ohio State were considered bubble teams headed into the Big Ten regular season finale for both teams, but the Wildcats were a bit bubblier than the Buckeyes.
The common thought was that a Buckeye win would sew up an NCAA invited for them, but that a loss would not necessarily eliminate them pending the outcome of their Big Ten tournemant performance. The Wildcats meanwhile were viewed as fighting for their lives, and they played like it.
The Buckeyes got off to a torrid start and jumped out to an impressive 21-6 lead with 10:57 remaining in the first half. It looked like Northwestern's bubble had burst, but the gritty Wildcats were not yet ready to go away.
"I think we were a little rattled to start the game, proably the first 12 minutes of the game," said Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody.
"They (OSU) pushed out further (on defense) than they have most of the year.
"In the half court they were playing the wings harder and trapping a little bit, making it a little more difficult, putting more pressure on the guy with the ball. That caused us some problems."
Northwestern finally settled down offensively and defensively found something that really gave the Buckeyes fits. The Wildcats switched from a matchup zone to a trapping 1-3-1 defense that seemed to completely baffle the Buckeyes and allowed the Wildcats to go on a 9-0 run to cut OSU's once comfortable lead to just six points at 21-15.
The Buckeyes scored the last four points of the first period while holding the Wildcats off the board to take a ten point lead at the half, but it took Northwestern just under five minutes in the second half to trim the Buckeye lead to just one at 27-26.
"The game got close and the 1-3-1 made a big difference at the end of the first half and beginning of the second half," Carmody said.
"We lost our poise on offense," said Matta of OSU's dry spell that saw them score just four points in over 10 minutes of play.
"We turned it over some, I thought we were a little bit hesitant to shoot the open shot and unleashed a couple of bad ones.
"It was definitely frustrating. We told our guys to keep defending. I finally told them in a time out "Just make a shot"....there may have been one more word in between there. Just put the ball in the basket," Matta told his team.
The Buckeyes finally got the Wildcats out of the 1-3-1 zone when they got the lob play going from Evan Turner at the top of the key to B. J. Mullens down low. The Buckeyes ran that play on four of five possessions and got three dunks for Mullens.
"We've been practicing that all week. They've got a 5-10 guy down there at the bottom of their 1-3-1 zone so we took advantage of it and it paid off for us," said Mullens.
Once the Wildcats were forced to abandon the 1-3-1 OSU forward Evan Turner was able to do his thing and revive the OSU offense.
"Turner really took over the game. We had to come out of it because he threw the ball up three times to Mullens. Then we switched to matchup and we couldn't handle him in that. They isolated and he made tough shots. He's a good player and he sort of took over the game again," said Carmody.
Mullens' last dunk on a lob put OSU up by five at 37-32 with 8:30 remaining but the Wildcats still had plenty of fight left in them. Turner began scoring but Northwestern heated up from three point range and eventually regained the lead when Michael Thompson banked in a three as the shot clock was about to expire and was also fouled by Jon Diebler on the play. Thompson converted the free throw to put Northwestern up 45-43 with 3:35 remaining.
"That was just a stupid play by me," said Diebler.
"I didn't know if he got a shot off just because there was one second left (on the shot clock). That was a good basket by him. It was a great shot. You've got to give him credit."
It looked for all the world like Northwestern had seized the momentum, but Diebler made up for his foul on the previous play by hitting a three pointer on OSU's next possession to put his team back on top by two with 3:35 remaining.
Diebler's shot not only gave OSU a lead but also seemed to energize the OSU defense. The Buckeyes were able to hold Northwestern off the scoreboard over the last 3:35 of the game to claim the win. It was one last defensive stand in a game in which their defense seemed to find some of the intensity that it had early in the season but has been lacking since the injury to David Lighty.
"For them eight assists on 18 field goals is really, really low," said Matta of Northwestern's final offensive stats for the game.
"To force them into 16 turmovers, they're not a team that turns it over that much. That was the big thing that we were trying to do, extend it and buy ourselves time to get to the guys we wanted to get to."
The win raised OSU's overall record to 20-9 and the team finished with a Big Ten record of 10-8, good for a three-way tie with Wisconsin and Penn State in the final Big Ten regular season standings. The win earned OSU a fifth-seed in the Big Ten tournament and the first round bye that accompanies the top five seeds. By virtue of the tie breakers, Wisconsin earned the fourth seed and also got a bye, while Penn State ended up the sixth seed and will have to play on Thursday of the tournament.
Northwestern closed out the regular season with an overall record of 17-12 and Big Ten record of 8-10, good for ninth in the conference standings ahead of both Iowa and Indiana. The Wildcats will play Minnesota on Thursday in the Big Ten tournament. The winner of that game will advance to play Michigan State.
Game Notes: Ohio State forward Evan Turner is considered a candidate for Player of the Year honors in the Big Ten. Turner, a sophomore, says he has no intention of jumping to the NBA next season.
"I want to come back and win some championships, win a Big Ten championship, go deep in the tournamant, hopefully the Final Four and national championship. I want to be leaving here as a winner, not just as an 'almost', as a winner, and I think we have the potenital," said Turner.
Return to the-OZone Front Page
(c) 2009 The O-Zone, O-Zone
Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, rebroadcast,rewritten, or redistributed.