Over the holiday weekend, Thad Matta’s basketball Buckeyes advanced to the championship game of the NIT Season Tip-Off by defeating 21st-ranked Syracuse 79-65 on Thanksgiving Eve at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The Buckeyes returned to the Garden and followed that impressive win over a ranked opponent by being on the receiving end of a rout as Texas A&M trounced Ohio State 70-47 in the finals on Friday.

In the semifinals against the Orange, 7-foot freshman Kosta Koufos scored a career-high 24 points while Othello Hunter added 15 points and Jamar Butler had 14 for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State was down 20-15 midway through the first half, before using a 16-4 run to take a seven point lead. Koufos scored the last six points of the spurt with a 3-pointer and a three-point play with 5:43 left in the half. The teams traded baskets and the Buckeyes went into the break up 42-34.

Then Koufos scored the first basket of the second half to extend the lead to 10 before Syracuse went on a 9-2 run to close to 46-43.

The Buckeyes answered right back with an 8-1 spurt to take a 56-44 lead on Butler’s 3-pointer with 12:35 left. Ohio State increased the lead to 15, hitting three more 3-pointers, including another one by Butler that made it 67-52.

Syracuse could get no closer than 11 the rest of the way.

In the finals on Friday, Butler had 17 points for the Buckeyes, but Koufos finished with just 10 on 4-for-16 shooting against the Aggies.

Ohio State couldn’t throw a beach ball into the Hudson River if they were standing on a pier against Texas A&M.

As a team, the Buckeyes shot 24.6 percent for the game (14-for-57), including 5-for-28 in the second half (17.9 percent). Ohio State was 4-for-21 from 3-point range.

“You’re going to have games like this,” Matta said. “I don’t know how many I’ve been a part of where the ball would not go in the basket for us but tonight I was. We’ve got to get back, regroup, and get ourselves ready to go. To feel sorry for yourself or whatever, we can’t do that. We’ve got to get ourselves ready to play again. I can’t name another team in the country that’s playing four Top 25 teams in a stretch of 10 days, and that’s what we’ve got ahead of us.”

Texas A&M shot 52.7 percent for the game (29-for-55) and outrebounded the Buckeyes 47-32.

“When you shoot 24 percent there’s going to be a lot of rebounds and it’s probably going to be a little lopsided,” Matta said.

On Sunday, the Buckeyes returned home to take on Virginia Military at St. John Arena because Elmo and Big Bird took over Value City Arena with Sesame Street Live.

Koufos recorded his first career double-double as the Buckeyes rolled over VMI with a 90-57.

Four other Ohio State players reached double figures in the win as Butler added a dozen, David Lighty scored 11 and Matt Terwilliger and Evan Turner each scored 10 for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State will get their digs back and take on No. 1-ranked North Carolina in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge at Value City Arena, Wednesday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. and it will be televised on ESPN.

Tags: Buckeye Basketball //