Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Advance to Elite Eight with Record Comeback
By John Porentas

If you are one of the many who left the Buckeyes for dead at the half, you needn't feel too guilty or too much remorse. It was a perfectly natural reaction to the reality that the Tennessee Volunteers were simply destroying No. 1-seed Ohio State, handing them a humiliating pounding in the NCAA tournament that was beginning to look like a big-game swoon that took place earlier this year in a certain desert location in a different sport. While it was going on, even the Buckeyes were starting to lose the faith.

"They (Tennessee) just hit some unbelievable shots," said OSU assistant coach Dan Peters.

"Every open look they knocked it down. They kind of had us reeling.

"I think there were doubts (on behalf of OSU's players) all during the first half. We were kind of shell shocked. It's the first time I've seen it all year. I've never seen that in our players, but not at half time," said Peters.

"I thought it was going to be a long night," admitted Othello Hunter of Tennessee's hot start. "They wouldn't miss. For a split second I wondered if they ever were going to miss."

Tennessee hit nine three pointers in the first half for a 60 percent shooting percentage from beyond the arc. The Vols also forced seven OSU turnovers while committing just three themselves. They also outrebounded OSU 19-14. It was the kind of one-sided performance that totally justifies that futility you were feeling.

"We played about as well the first half I think as we can play," said Tennessee Head Coach Bruce Pearl.

OSU point guard Mike Conley Jr. was unable to really explain why the Buckeye played the way they did in the first half.

"You think your guys are ready to go and then a team goes on a run like that and we just never recovered," said Conley.

The volunteers led by as many as 20 in the first half and led by 17 when the half finally ended. The Buckeyes were able to go the locker room to lick their wounds. It was also a time when OSU Head Coach Thad Matta worked a little magic. First, he worked on his team's heads, to remove the doubts that had crept in.

"Thad was great with them at half time," said Peters.

"He said 'Fellas, I have all the confidence in the world in you and you can get this done. We're not going to make any 17-point baskets, just chip away,'" said Peters.

Matta also gave his team a simple formula for success. Play defense and play offense aggressively, putting the ball on the floor and getting to the foul line in order to score while the clock wasn't running. Matta should have saved that speech, because he got his team to buy into everything he was saying, and they went out and acted on it.

"We thought our best chance to get back in the game was to stop the clock as much as possible, so if we could get into the bonus quickly, if we could get into the double-bonus quickly that would benefit us. We told them we're not going to get back into the game by shooting crazy threes," said assistant Coach John Groce.

The Buckeyes opened the second half with 16-2 run that took 14 points off the lead before the Vols knew what hit them. Conley said the success of the run was partly execution by the Buckeyes, but also that the Vols maybe thought the game was over.

"Their body language was that they already had the game won," said Conley of Tennessee when the second half began. "We just came out with aggression like they did in the first half."

"We actually got into it a lot quicker than we thought," commented Peters of OSU's blitz to open the second half.

The only question was whether the Buckeyes could sustain the momentum.

"My experience over the years is when you come back from large deficits like that, I think there's a little big of a letdown. Most games you watch it's not like you keep going. I think that's natural. I've seen it too many times," said Peters.

To complicate matters the Buckeyes were playing without the services of several key components. Oden played just nine minutes in the first half after he picked up three fouls then played sparingly in the second half when he picked up his fourth. Othello Hunter also sat out much of the second half with four fouls, and forward Ivan Harris missed much of the second half with an injured knee. That meant that players like David Lighty, Matt Terwilliger and Othello Hunter had to step up. They all did.

Lighty logged 20 minutes, Hunter 16 and Terwilliger 14, and each contributed. Hunter grabbed five rebounds and scored four points, Terwilliger three rebounds and scored five points and Lighty seven points including three on a critical three point play and three more on a three-point field goal at a critical point of the second half. His three point shot tied the game at 79 after Tennessee's Chris Lofton had given the Volunteers the lead with a three pointer of his own.

"It was challenging," said Groce. "But we were just kind of playing with each possession. Sometimes with what happens in a game you don't react to them, you just live with them and move on. I thought our guys did a great job with that. Terwilliger was huge. I told him coming off the floor when the game was over that we would not have been able to win the game had it not been for the quality of his minutes. He was tremendous. He fought, defended, ran the floor, made free throws, got some key rebounds, kept balls alive and tipped back to give us extra possessions. I thought he minutes were extremely valuable and a big part of our success in the second half," said Groce.

Of the regulars, it was Ron Lewis who led the way for the Buckeyes with a game-high 25 points while Conley added 17 points and six assists.

The game was finally decided in the last six seconds of play. Conley went to the free throw line to shoot two with the score tied at 84. He hit the first one but missed the second. The Vols hustled the ball down the court and with time running out Ramar Smith drove to the rim and got off a shot from in close a split second before the horn sounded, but Oden rejected the shot to preserve the win for the Buckeyes.

OSU's comeback of 20 points is an all-time NCAA tournament record for comebacks in the Sweet-16 or later.

OSU's strategy of putting the ball on the floor and getting to the foul line resulted in 35 free throw attempts for OSU in the game. The Buckeyes made 23. Conley made nine-of-14, Oden five-of-six, and Lewis four-of-four to lead the way at the free throw stripe. Tennessee shot just 17 and made eight.

Tennessee ends its season with a record of 24-11. Two of those losses came at the hands of the Buckeyes. OSU is now 33-3 on the season.

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