Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Complete Season-Sweep of Wolverines with 64-54 Win
By John Porentas
The second meeting between No. 12 Ohio State (21-4, 10-4) and Michigan (18-8, 8-7 Big Ten) bore little resemblance to the first except in one important way - the outcome.
The first time around the Wolverines and Buckeyes staged a shootout with OSU finally prevailing 94-85 in a game the featured excellent shooting by both teams. The second meeting was a meat grinder with neither team shooting well for most the game. The Wolverines compounded their shooting woes with 18 turnovers and the Buckeyes allowed themselves to be outrebounded 43-33.
"Certainly we had various turnovers that hurt our team, especially when you look at the shooting percentages of both team. You're probably going to figure this is going to be a possession game. Whatever team can hang onto it and find the most surge to pull away and I thought they did that in the second half," said Michigan Head Coach Tommy Amaker.
Michigan never led in the game, but they were close until Ohio State finally got the surge that Amaker was talking about. It came midway through the second half and compliments of two unlikely heroes, reserve forward Ivan Harris and reserve center Matt Terwilliger.
Ohio State led by six at 44-38 with 9:11 remaining in the game when Terwilliger started it all with a jumper to put OSU up by eight. The Wolverines countered with a layup by Courtney Sims, but Terwilliger came right back and hit another jumper to put OSU back up by eight. The Wolverines got a free throw from Brent Petway, but that's when Ivan Harris got into the act. Harris hit a jumper to put OSU up by nine. Following an OSU stop, Harris got into the act again, this time with a three pointer to give OSU its first double-digit lead of the game and give them separation from the Wolverines who had hung in with the Buckeyes until that point.
The Buckeyes added five more unanswered points to the run to take a 17 point lead and for all intents and purposes put away the Wolverines. The Buckeyes held their double-digit lead for the rest of the game to coast to the win.
Terwilliger and Harris' scoring keyed the run, but the Buckeyes controlled the game by simply play more aggressively than the Wolverines and getting to the foul line. Ohio State outscored Michigan 16-6 from the free throw line, mostly on the strength of six made free throws by Ron Lewis and four more by Terence Dials. Lewis got himself to the free throw line by putting the ball on the floor and beating the Wolverines to the basket to draw fouls.
"Ron has that knack of getting inside the defense," said OSU Head Coach Thad Matta.
"I think that as you watched Ron progress this year his timing has gotten better, he sees things, I think the game has really slowed down. To see his poise get better is a tribute to him."
Dials, meanwhile, got there by being a bulldog in the paint and drawing hacks from Michigan's inside defenders. Dials, who did not play well against Michigan in the first meeting, was outstanding against the Wolverines this time around. He scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to record his fifth-straight double-double. The Buckeyes needed the free throw shooting from Lewis and strong performance inside from Dials because the weapon they have depended on all season, strong outside shooting, deserted them. OSU's usual three-point threats of Je'Kel Foster, Jamar Butler and Matt Sylvester combined to shoot 2-for-17 from the floor, but with the outside shots not falling, the Buckeyes still found a way to score enough for the win.
"They utilized the foul line and knocked in a decent percentage from there, and Terence Dials on the inside," said Amaker.
"They were struggling to shoot the threes like they normally do and he has a big time post presence in there. Certainly his double-double and ability to score around the rim was hurtful for us."
The Buckeyes got just enough on offense, but were very strong defensively where they put the clamps on Michigan's dynamic backcourt combination of Daniel Horton and Dion Harris. Horton and Harris were a combined five-of-23 from the field and combined to commit 11 turnovers.
"They struggled with the ball, that's more important to me," said Amaker.
"I know that they didn't score as much as we need them to score, but certainly handling the majority of handling the ball for out team they had 11 of our 18 turnovers. Those are not good numbers or any formula for success, especially on the road."
Matta was especially pleased with the defensive effort of Jamar Butler who checked Horton. Horton scored 39 in his last outing against Illinois, but netted just 12 against OSU.
"I joked with him (Butler) right before the game, I said 'Look, if you don't think you can get this job done you can fake an injury and you wont' have to play. He didn't say anything, he just looked at me and kind of smiled and went on his way," said Matta.
"He (Horton) is a terrific player. When he has the ball, you're always scared to death because something is going to happen," Matta said.
"His quickness, his ability to pass. I do think that our guys took it to heart, coming off a 39 point game, that was brought up a time or two in the two days we had to prepare, that he was going to try and come in and try to light us up."
"I didn't want him to get going early," said Butler.
"That's what he did against Illinois. It was hard to stop him after that, so we I tried to not let him get going early."
Senior J. J. Sullinger joined Dials as a double-figure scorer with 13 points. Sullinger added eight rebounds, a steal and an assist with no turnovers to his game against the Wolverines.
"Sullinger is very tough," said Amaker.
"I think he can be a lost guy a little bit in terms of attention and recognition. He's a tough matchup. He plays bigger than his size but he also has very good skill level."
Matta was pleased with the play of his bench in the game.
"Really all three guys," said Matta.
"Ron (Lewis) gave us a tremendous lift, Matt Terwilliger knocks down a couple of shots and made a couple of defensive plays, Ivan Harris, those two shots really extended the lead for us and was probably the jolt that we needed. In both games against Michigan our bench has probably been the biggest difference. Ivan came in in both games and made shots, but even his defense today I thought was tremendous I thought. He was in great position and was in the right positions where we needed him to be. Matt did a tremendous job of spelling Terence and once again had a big block and was in the right position to help."
Matta was thrilled with the win and loved OSU's defensive effort, but says the Buckeyes can still get better.
"I've been beating the drum of defense all year long. I think we're capable of playing good defense. There is still areas we have to hone in on and get better at, but that's got to be the thing that as we go down the stretch of the season that we hang our hat on and hopefully continue to find some how, some way, to improve our rebounding. If we're playing solid defense and we give up offensive rebounds, it kind of deflates us."
Updated Big Ten Standings 2/25/06 |
| |
Big Ten |
Overall |
| Teams |
W |
L |
Pct. |
W |
L |
Pct. |
| Ohio State |
10 |
4 |
.714 |
21 |
4 |
.840 |
| Iowa |
9 |
5 |
.642 |
20 |
8 |
.714 |
| Illinois |
9 |
5 |
.642 |
23 |
5 |
.815 |
| Wisconsin |
8 |
5 |
.615 |
18 |
8 |
.692 |
| MSU |
7 |
6 |
.538 |
19 |
8 |
.704 |
| Michigan |
8 |
7 |
.533 |
18 |
8 |
.692 |
| Indiana |
6 |
7 |
.462 |
14 |
10 |
.583 |
| Penn State |
6 |
9 |
.400 |
14 |
12 |
.538 |
| Minnesota |
5 |
8 |
.385 |
14 |
10 |
.643 |
| Northwestern |
5 |
9 |
.357 |
13 |
13 |
.500 |
| Purdue |
3 |
11 |
.214 |
9 |
16 |
.360 |
The win moves Ohio State into sole possession of first place in the Big Ten standings. OSU had shared the lead with Iowa when the day began, but the Hawkeyes fell to Illinois in Champaign today to fall out of first.
The Buckeyes have two games remaining on their regular-season schedule, a road game on Wednesday with Northwestern and the season-finale on Saturday with Purdue. Two wins would give Ohio State an outright Big Ten championship. One win assures of them of at least a tie. Ohio State is also assured of finishing no lower than fifth in the final Big Ten standings, thereby assuring themselves of a bye in the first round of the Big Ten tournament.
The Buckeyes have also risen to fourth in the current RPI rankings according to the Web Site Realtimerpi.com.
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