Men's Basketball
Season Ends on Double-Overtime Loss to Siena in First Round of NCAA Tournament
By John Porentas
"This is March Madness so the craziest things are going to happen. I just wish it would have happened to us."------ Buckeye guard Even Turner after OSU's double overtime loss to Siena in the first round of the NCAA tournament.An Ohio State season that at times was weird with odd occurrences ended with a game that was about as weird as it gets. The Buckeyes dropped a double-overtimes thriller by a final of 74-72 to Siena to end their season.
The first 40 minutes of the game were at times barely watchable as Neither team could get any flow offensively. They combined for 39 turnovers in regulation, nearly one a minute. Siena committed 20 of those turnovers, OSU 19.
"It was odd," said OSU Head Coach Thad Matta. "We never had a flow going, even when we were up 11 points. "
The Buckeyes held a five point lead at the half and stretched that lead out to 11 points at 41-30 with 14:30 remaining in the game. Aided by five OSU turnovers, the Saints went on a 9-0 run to cut OSU lead's to just two with 10:41 still left to play.
"When we were up 41-30 we could have took it, then we had some turnovers, some bad shots, and they got right back in the game quickly," said OSU guard P. J. Hill.
OSU's lead was built as Siena was unable to get its fast break offense going and could not solve OSU's zone defense. The Saints shot poorly to add to the offensive woes created by their turnovers but stayed in the game by crushing the bigger Buckeyes on the glass to earn extra possessions and extra shots. Siena grabbed a whopping 14 offensive rebounds in the first half alone. They ended the game with 23 offensive boards compared to just nine for OSU. Overall Siena outrebounded OSU 53-37.
"That's been a killer for us all year. They hit the glass real hard and did what they were supposed to do," said OSU center Dallas Lauderdale.
The Buckeyes held a four point lead with 1:18 remaining in regulation but could not hang on for the win. Siena's Kenny Hasbrouck hit a three pointer with 49 seconds remaining to cut the lead to one. Turner missed a jump shot on OSU's next possession and fouled Hasbrouck in the fight for the rebound. Hasbrouck made one of two to tie the game with eight seconds left. Turner missed a jump shot with three seconds remaining to put the game into overtime.
Four minutes and 51 seconds into the five minute overtime it looked again like the Buckeyes had done enough to win. P. J. Hill canned a pair of free throws with nine seconds on the clock to put his team up 65-62. All the Buckeyes needed to do was prevent a three point play of any kind. The couldn't do it. Siena guard Ronald Moore, who was 0-4 from three point range, knocked down his first three pointer of the night with three seconds remaining to tie the game at 65 and send it into a second overtime. The Buckeyes could have sealed the win by simply fouling Moore before he got off the shot thereby limiting him to two free throws, but Hill, who was guarding him, did not commit the foul.
"It was my fault," said Hill.
"As a point guard I felt I let the team down.
"As a point guard I should know to foul him. If I foul him on the ground in the back court he can't get three free throws, so he's going to have to make one or make them both and they're going to have to foul again. I should have known it, coach was saying it, but they called a time out before I was going to the line. I was concentrating on the free throws but as a point guard I have to have more than one thing on my mind at once. I've got to be the general on the court," Hill said.
The second overtime proved to be as weird as the rest of the game. The Buckeyes took an early lead at 68-65, but the Siena tied it on a three pointer by Hasbrouck. After a Siena free throw, Turner put OSU up one at 72-71 with 18 seconds remaining. That's when Moore struck again, knocking down his second three pointer of the game with just three seconds to go to give Siena the lead at 74-72. The Buckeyes managed to get the ball up court for a decent shot by Turner with just under a second left to play, but the shot wouldn't fall giving Siena the win. The loss left the Buckeyes stunned.
"I'm just numb right now," said OSU guard William Buford after the game.
"I'm in shock," echoed Turner.
The loss ended the season for OSU. Matta told his players after the game that he was proud of how they had handled the adversity they had faced in the season, but upset about how the last game played out.
"He was more mad about how we let the game go," said Hill.
"He was proud of how guys stepped up and filled the void when we lost Dave Lighty, lost other players.
"That's what he was happy about, but he's not happy that we could have done more, could have gone farther, and the fact that we lose games on our own part by not boxing out.
"We can't correct the same problem over and over again. That's what he was disappointed about."
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