Men's Basketball
Clutch Shot by Lewis Lifts Buckeyes to 68-66 Win Over Tennessee
By John Porentas

The No. 5 Buckeyes (14-3, 2-1 Big Ten) threw up eight three-point attempts against the No. 16/20 Tennessee Volunteers (13-4, 1-1 SEC) in the first 19 minutes of the first half. None of them went in.

That usually does not bode well for a basketball team, especially since the Volunteers managed to make four-of-15 from long range and also did some damage with their press, forcing eight OSU turnovers to score nine points off those turnovers. The Buckeyes had a bit of an equalizer going in that half, however, in the person of freshman center Greg Oden.

Oden poured in 16 first half points to keep the Buckeyes close to the Volunteers until somebody found a way to make a shot. He also grabbed 10 rebounds before the intermission to register a double-double in his 18 minutes of play. All that despite some extreme effort by the Volunteers to keep him in check.

"When it comes to me there's no tricks," said Oden describing some of the tactics employed against him.

"I turn around and I see two hands pushing me, guys put their legs, wrap around my arms, I get it all.

"On rebounds, I swear to God nobody blocks out.

"They just push me in the back. Even today I think somebody grabbed my shorts. I think my butt was out for a second. I'm dead serious too. I felt a little wind too," said Oden drawing a raucous laugh from reporters after the game.

His heroics were almost not enough though, because with under a minute left to play in half, the Buckeyes still trailed by three. Then somebody finally made a shot. Check that, somebody made two of them.

OSU point guard Mike Conley finally got the Buckeyes on the board from long range when he canned a three-pointer with 1:02 remaining in the half to tie the score at 33 all. It was OSU's first three of game, and just for good measure Conley drained another three with eight second remaining on the clock to put OSU up by three at the intermission. Conley, who has struggled some with his shot, was glad to finally see his shot go down.

"It did a lot of things for me to see one or two go down in games," said Conley.

"In practice I've been shooting over 50% in scrimmages. Coach wanted me to be more confident about shooting the ball in the game. After seeing those two go in I felt more comfortable. throughout the rest of the game. It really helped me out."

Oden and Conley combined to go nine-of-10 from the field in the first half and accounted for all but four of OSU's field goals. The rest of the Buckeyes combined to go four-of-23 from the field.

Conley's three-point shooting spurt gave OSU six consecutive points at the end of the half and started a scoring run that continued in the second half. OSU scored the first four points to open the second stanza to make the run 10-0 and open a seven point lead.

It looked like the Buckeyes had taken over.

They hadn't.

OSU went up by as many as 10 in the second half at 49-39, but wilted late as Tennessee's defensive pressure finally took it's toll.

"What pressure defense does is gives you chance to be aggressive," said Tennessee Head Coach Bruce Pearl.

"We drew a lot of courage from our full-court defense. It was a factor tonight. We clearly got the press on more in the second half than we did in the first half because we could see that it was helping. We thought that fatigue could be factor. We wanted to see if we could wear them out, get (OSU center) Greg (Oden) tired and have them in position to turn the ball over late," said Pearl.

OSU held a nine-point lead at 57-48 with 9:06 remaining in the half, but a rash of turnovers forced by Tennessee's pressure cause that lead to melt away. The Volls were particularly effective at pressuring OSU's inbounds plays and forced 20 OSU turnovers, 12 of them in the second half. For the game, Tennessee produced 18 points off turnovers.

Tennessee was able to chip away at the lead and finally earned a tie at 59 all with 3:41 remaining in the game. The Buckeyes countered with a three-point field goal by Ivan Harris to go back up by three, but things were just getting interesting. Tennessee finally got over the hump to take the lead at 64-63 when guard Chris Lofton stole the basketball then went the length of the court to score a layup with just 56 seconds left on the clock. OSU regained the lead when Conley made two free throws with 55 seconds to go, but Lofton once again victimized the Buckeyes, blowing by Jamar Butler to get to the basket for a layup with 45 seconds remaining and put his team up 66-65.

The Volunteers had two chances to extend the lead, but Wayne Chism missed the front end of a one-and-one with 27 seconds remaining and Lofton also missed the front end of a one-and-one with 23 seconds to go and set up a dramatic finish. The Buckeyes rebounded the missed free throw and set up a play for senior guard Ron Lewis who came around a screen at the top of the key, elevated, and pumped up a three point shot that found nothing but the bottom of the net to give OSU a two-point lead with 12 seconds remaining.

"You saw it,"said Matta when asked what play he had called for OSU's last possession.

"Ron came off the double (screen) and knocked the shot down. He got a good look and we're always good with that," Matta said.

"We wanted a good looking shot, to get it into the shooter's hands," said Conley.

"Ron is a senior on the team and a leader on the team. We were trying to get him the ball and spread it out and let him drive, try to get a shot that way, get a shot up with five or more seconds on the clock so we could have a chance to tip it in if we missed, but he hit the shot."

The play did not result in the drive or a shot from up close, but Lewis was able to connect from long range for the game winner.

"I didn't think it was the best shot at the time but when it went in I was his number one fan. I just wanted to get back on defense then," said Conley.

Tennessee was able to hurry the ball up court and Ramar Smith was able to get off a shot, but it didn't go down and Butler was able to snag the rebound for the Buckeyes to seal the win.

"We did enough to win that basketball game, but obviously so did Ohio State," said Pearl.

"I thought it was going to be an exciting game, but I didn't know it was going to be that exciting," added Matta.

Oden led all scorers with 24 points and also registered a game-high 15 rebounds to go with four assists and three blocked shots. Oden was nine-of-13 from the field and six-for-six from the free throw line despite shooting all his free throws left handed. Conley was OSU's only other double figure scorer with 16. Tennessee was led Lofton with 23 points.

Ohio State outrebounded Tennessee by a 46-29 margin.

Box Score

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