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Men's Basketball
Turner, Buckeyes Exact Revenge on Wolverines
By Brandon CastelCOLUMBUS – On Friday Evan Turner gave Ohio State fans hope they might get another year of the star guard in Columbus.
Evan Turner flashes his "ready for the NBA smile" as he flashes past a Wolverine defender.
Photo by Jim DavidsonOne day later he may have dashed those hopes with another one of his now all-too-familiar “this guy looks like an NBA player playing college basketball” performances in Ohio State’s 66-55 win over archrival Michigan (13-15, 6-10 Big Ten).
With the ninth-ranked Buckeyes (23-7, 13-4) leading 43-37 midway through the second half, Turner went up and blocked a shot by Scott Novak on the break on a play that college players simply don’t make.
Channeling his inner LeBron James, Turner caught Novak from behind, pinning his fast-break layup attempt against the glass before coming down with the ball. He quickly advanced the ball to Jon Diebler, who missed an open three-point attempt, but Turner snatched the offensive rebound and went right back up for the putback off the glass for two of his 18 points.
“I don’t know if he’s the best in the country, but I know he’s really good,” Michigan Head Coach John Beilein said of Turner, who also grabbed 11 rebounds while dishing out seven assists.
“He is one of the few guys who you can give him the ball at 17 feet and he can make a shot at 10 feet over someone’s head.”
The 6-foot-7 point guard did plenty of that too. He went 8-of-11 from the floor, including a jumper on the first basket of the game. The Buckeyes got out to a 9-0 start, which was capped off by a running floater from William Buford, who led all scorers with 24 points.
“Will was born to score,” Turner said of Buford, who also had nine rebounds and four assists.
“You give him the ball in any situation and he’s going to score. He can shoot over anyone.”
The Buckeyes led 11-4 after the first five minutes, but Diebler fouled Novak shooting a three with 14:18 to play in the first half. He hit all three free throws to make it 11-6, which sparked a 7-5 run for Michigan as they closed the gap to five points.
Ohio State extended the lead back to nine on a layup from Dallas Lauderdale, who tied a career-high with 14 points, but things changed quickly when David Lighty went to the bench with two fouls at the 6:16 mark of the first half.
“It affected us a lot,” said Lauderdale, who went 7-of-9 from the floor.
“Dave’s one of our defensive stoppers. When he wasn’t on the court they took advantage of us.”
With Lighty on the bench the Wolverines closed out the half on a 16-9 run and took a 33-32 lead into the locker rooms at halftime.
“We got off to a good start but Michigan was holding the ball every possession and we got a little impatient,” OSU Head Coach Thad Matta said.
“They were able to bang some shots down.”
So were the Buckeyes, who shot 63.6 percent in the first half, but they also gave the Wolverines 12 points off seven first-half turnovers.
With a regular season conference championship still hanging in the balance, the Buckeyes came out hot in the second half as they hit Michigan for a 19-9 run in the first 10 minutes. They led 51-40 with 10:26 to play and the Wolverines would never recover as they went just 1-for-10 from behind the arc in the second half.
“I thought they did a great job on Manny (Harris) today,” Beilein said of his star junior who shot just 1-for-8 from the floor.
“Each time he got the ball they pressured him with defenders. They stayed right on him. Every time he got the ball there’d be one guy on him and two gapping him.”
Harris scored 24 points in Michigan’s 73-64 win over Ohio State up in Ann Arbor, but managed only 10 against them in Columbus – eight of which came at the free throw line. The same went for senior DeShawn Sims, who was held to just 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting after going off for 28 in the last meeting.
“My coaches were on me all week about Sims scoring 30 on me up in Michigan,” said Lauderdale, who guarded Michigan’s big man for most of the afternoon.
“I just wanted to my best to help shut him down.”
With Sims and Harris struggling, the Wolverines shot 26 percent in the second half and were outscored 34-22 in a revenge win for the Buckeyes.
“Now we can say we’ve beaten every team in the Big Ten this year,” Matta said.
“Michigan was the only team we hadn’t beaten.”
The Buckeyes will get a chance to beat Illinois for a second time when they face the Fighting Illini Tuesday (9 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Value City Arena. They could very well be playing for a Big Ten title depending on the outcome of Sunday’s game between Michigan State and Purdue.
Game Notes:
* Ohio State leads the all-time series with Michigan 86-71. They have won the last six in Columbus and 10 of the last 12 overall. The Wolverines are 1-7 all-time in Value City Arena.
* Under head coaches Jim Tressel (8-1), Jim Foster (11-0) and Thad Matta (10-2), Ohio State has a combined record of 29-3 vs. Michigan.
* The Buckeyes are 16-1 in Value City Arena this season.
* Evan Turner shot 8-of-11 for the game, scoring 18 points and grabbing 11 rebounds for his 12th double-double of the season. He also had a career-high four blocks to go with seven assists.
* With 11 rebounds, Turner passed Jim Smith for 16th all-time on the OSU career rebounds list (620).
* William Buford led all scorers with 24 points. He also had nine rebounds and four assists.
* Dallas Lauderdale tied a career-high with 14 points. With a thunderous alley-oop dunk assisted by Turner, Lauderdale scored his 400 career point as a Buckeye.
* Jon Diebler went 1-for-7 from behind the arc. He was 2-for-10 from long range Wed. at Penn State. After the game, Matta said he thought Diebler was taking good shots for the most part. He said he wants him to keep shooting, but he told Jon he doesn’t want to have more confidence in him than he has in himself.
* Matta was asked about the possibility of Turner sticking around for his senior season and said he would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about. He also said he told Evan before the season not to be one of those guys who plays with one foot already out the door. To Turner’s credit, he has remained 100 percent focused on this team and this season.
* Matta was also asked if he liked where his team was at heading into to post-season play, to which he responded “Can I answer that Tuesday night? We’re not done yet.”
* Don’t count the Buckeyes among those tuning in for the tipoff of Sunday’s game between No. 14 Michigan State and No. 3 Purdue. That game is set to start at 4 p.m. ET, which happens to be the same time Ohio State is scheduled to practice Sunday. Matta did say he would try to give his players a chance to catch the second half.
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