Men"s Basketball
Buckeyes Hose Presbyterian 78-48 for First Win Without Turner
By Brandon CastelCOLUMBUS, Ohio – The game was over before it even began, but for Ohio State Head Coach Thad Matta, Wednesday night’s 78-48 victory over Presbyterian College (2-9) was about more than winning.
With three non-conference games left before the Buckeyes (8-2) open Big Ten play at Wisconsin on New Year’s Eve, getting the W was at the forefront of Matta’s attention as his team took on the Blue Hose from South Carolina.
Yet with three of their top juniors voluntarily redshirting for when the team becomes eligible for the NCAA tournament in 2012, the Buckeyes were all but locks to overwhelm a Presbyterian team coming off a 103-64 loss at North Carolina on Saturday.
P.J. Hill lays in the basketball to help fuel OSU's fast first half start.
Photo by Jim Davidson“I left it up to them. They knew they were going to redshirt (at some point) or they never would have come because they want to play in the NCAA tourney,” said Presbyterian Head Coach Gregg Nibert, who started five freshmen in the game.
But for Matta, it didn’t matter if they were playing a team of junior high schoolers, this game was all about how they won – or more accurately, how they coasted.
On Tuesday, OSU’s coach said he was interested to see how his team would respond after a tough loss at Butler over the weekend, especially considering they still weren’t going to have team-leader Evan Turner until well after the New Year.
“I told them after the game Saturday, ‘we’ll see what kind of me we are, what kind of team we are, when we come back out Wednesday night,” Matta said.
With Turner on the bench in street clothes for the first time since injuring his back against Eastern Michigan 11 days ago, his teammates put on a clinic in the first half for the 12 thousand fans in attendance at Value City Arena, as they outscored Presbyterian 53-21 in the first 20 minutes.
“Everyone came ready to play,” said junior David Lighty, who led the Buckeyes with 18 points.
“We wanted to get the sour taste out of mouths after Saturday.”
It was the next 20 minutes that had Matta in a bit of a foul mood in the locker room after the game.
“We need to do what we do for 40 minutes,” said Matta, who watched his team get outscored 27-25 in the second half.
“Look at our two losses this year and we’ve had letdowns for certain stretches and we can’t have that.”
Sophomore shooting guard William Buford threw down a hammer-time, one-handed slam dunk from the baseline on the first possession of the game, and the Buckeyes got out to a 6-0 lead in the blink of an eye.
Junior Jon Diebler extended Ohio State’s lead to 12-0 on back-to-back three pointers as the Buckeyes forced five Blue Hose turnovers in the opening 4:30 of the game. They shared the basketball to the tune of 14 assists on 20 baskets in the first half, while shooting 63 percent from the field and 53 percent from behind the arc against Presbyterian’s zone defense as they amassed a 53-21 halftime lead.
“I think we shared the ball extremely well, and we’re very confident of our offense,” said Diebler, who scored nine of his 12 points in the first half.
“We can really shoot the ball. Our offense is dangerous and when we’re playing like that we’re tough to beat.”
Picking up where he left off in the first half of the Butler game, Lighty continued to attack the basket Wednesday. With much of the offense going through him, Lighty finished with a game-high 20 points to go with six rebounds, three assists and three steals in 35 minutes. The Buckeyes outscored Presbyterian 37-10 in the paint.
It wasn’t until the Blue Hose came out in a man-to-man defense in the second half, something they had not done all year, that they were able to slow the momentum of the hot-shooting Buckeyes.
“Butler didn’t play them zone so that was silly,” Nibert said of playing zone the entire first half.
“I’m a man-to-man guy but I didn’t think we could do that with such a young team.”
But the change certainly seemed to frustrate the Buckeyes. They shot just 41 percent from the floor in the second half while turning the ball over seven times (compared to just four in the first half). They missed all four of their attempts from behind the arc as the Blue Hose went on a 16-4 run to close the gap to within 31 points at the 4:36 mark of the second half.
“They got confidence and we lost our momentum,” Diebler said, “It was hard to regain that momentum and intensity.”
The Buckeyes held on for a 30-point victory, and although it looked like a blowout on the scoreboard, it didn’t feel like one in the locker room after the game.
“We won, but again, like the Butler game, we didn’t do the little things that we had to do,” said Diebler, who grabbed only one rebound in 37 minutes.
“It’s not about the game right now, it’s about March,” added Lighty.
“If you want to win in March, you have to play well and do the little things for 40 minutes. If we don’t do the little things right now, in this game, when we play Wisconsin up there, why would we do the little things then?”
Lighty and the Buckeyes will have two more chances to work on the little things before that trip to Madison. They host Delaware State Saturday (4 p.m. ET, ESPNU) before closing out the pre-conference schedule Tuesday against Cleveland State (8 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network).
Games Notes:
- Ohio State began the game on a 31-7 run, ending at 8:58 of the first half.
- Thad Matta's Buckeyes are 33-5 in the month of December. Under Matta, Ohio State has not lost more than one game in the month per season.
-Junior Dallas Lauderdale made his 100th career field goal in the first half (102).
- Diebler has made at least one 3-pointer in his past 19 games, dating back to last season. The last time Diebler went scoreless from behind the arc was Feb. 14, 2009, in a 0-of-3 effort against Wisconsin.
- Eddie Days, a junior walk-on, made his Ohio State debut tonight.
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