Right: “Twig” Matt Terwilliger throws down two of his half-dozen points in Ohio State’s 73-56 win over California in the second round of the National Invitational Tournament at St. John Arena, Monday night. AP Photo/Terry Gilliam

It was only appropriate that Bruce Springsteen was belting out his hits like, “Glory Days,” at the Schottenstein Center as Thad Matta’s basketball team played in Ohio State’s former home, St. John Arena, against California in the second round of the National Invitational Tournament, Monday night.

I’m sure Springsteen also performed his 70s classic rock anthem, “Born to Run,” too, and that’s just what the Buckeyes did against the Golden Bears.

Ohio State forced 16 turnovers and cashed those in for 20 points, with many of those coming in transition, especially when Matta switched from his half-court, 3-2 zone defense to a full-court diamond press midway through the first half.

Ohio State’s swarming defense also held the Pac-10’s leading scorer, Ryan Anderson, to just 11 points on 4-for-11 shooting from the field.

Anderson was averaging 21.4 points per game entering last night’s contest.

Meanwhile, the senior duo of forward Othello Hunter and guard Jamar Butler dominated inside and out. Butler scored a game-high 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the floor, and was 4 of 9 from three-point land. Hunter scored 11 points and pulled down a team-high 16 rebounds for the Buckeyes.

If only Ohio State played with the intensity and desire they showed last night against teams like Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota earlier in the season, the Buckeyes would be playing in the other tournament.

But Matta’s cagers got off to a sluggish start offensively, as it appeared they were content on taking ill-advised shots from beyond the arc.

For the game, Ohio State was just 5-for-22 in trey tossing, with the bulk of those attempts coming in the first half when the Buckeyes chucked the rock 16 times from downtown, connecting on only four.

Cal led by as many as five points in the first half, and took a 19-18 advantage when Bears’ guard Jerome Randle swiped the ball from Butler and scored on an uncontested layup with 6:40 left in the opening stanza.

But from that point until the horn sounded to end the first half, Ohio State went on a 17-4 run to close out the period, fueled by three, three-pointers from Butler, as the Buckeyes headed into the locker room at intermission leading 35-23.

Ohio State came out in the second half to score the first seven points that padded their lead to 42-23 with 17:27 to play.

The closest the Bears got the rest of the way was 15 points on two separate occasions, while the Buckeyes biggest lead came when Jon Diebler made a pair from the charity stripe with 3:23 remaining that put OSU ahead 69-44.

Along with Butler and Hunter in double figures for the Buckeyes was freshman forward Kosta Koufos, who scored 17 points with six rebounds.

Randle led Cal with 18 points, with Anderson the only other Bear to notched double digits in the scoring column.

Ohio State was an even 50 percent (29-for-58) from the floor, while holding California to 23 of 57 from the field (40.4%).

The Buckeyes also dominated the glass, pulling down 38 total rebounds compared to 31 for the Bears. Of those 38, 14 caroms came on the offensive side with OSU scoring 17 second-chance points.

Up next, Ohio State will take on Dayton, Wednesday night. Tip-off at Value City Arena is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. ET, and it will be televised on ESPN.

Tags: Buckeye Basketball //