Buckeyes win slow-paced game
Right: Ohio State’s William Buford throws it down past yet another one of Iowa’s unathletic farm boys with a crew cut. (AP Photo)
Ugh. Watching Iowa play basketball is like watching paint dry. It’s quite possibly the most boring spectacle in college sports as a bunch of unathletic farm boys chuck the ball around the court for 30 seconds before heaving up a three-pointer.
Once again, Iowa controlled the tempo against Ohio State as the Buckeyes managed just 56 possessions in a 68-58 win over the Hawkeyes, Sunday afternoon.
Evan Turner was one of the few that showed up to play for OSU. He tied a career-high with 32 points while adding seven rebounds and five assists. Of Turner’s 32, 20 of those points came in the second half. Only one other player scored in double figures for the Buckeyes as Jon Diebler added 12 points.
William Buford only scored nine points, but did pull down a team-high nine rebounds. Dallas Lauderdale, who saw limited action due to foul trouble, scored just two points with one rebound in 18 minutes. David Lighty also scored nine points, but all those all came from the foul line.
Though Ohio State held a lead for over 32 minutes of the game, they had a hard time shaking Todd Lickliter’s Crew Cut Bridgade. The Buckeyes led by as many as seven points in the first half after dunk by Turner put Ohio State up with 9:17 until intermission. OSU headed into the locker room leading 32-27 at the break.
The Buckeyes went on a 9-2 run to start the second half and led by double digits for most of the final stanza. After a pair of free throws from Lighty, Ohio State claimed their largest advantage at 47:33 with 12:33 to go.
Iowa was able to cut the deficit down to eight points on several occasions later in the period, but couldn’t get any closer.
Ohio State head coach Thad Matta used just six players with the only one to come off the bench was backup center Kyle Madsen. Backup guards Jeremie Simmons and P.J. Hill did not get into the game.
Overall, the Buckeyes didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, going 22-of-29 (44.9%) from the field. Ohio State was also a anemic 2-of-13 (15.4%) from three-point land.
Another bad sign was that OSU was outrebounded by the smaller Hawkeye team, 31-29.
But a win is a win and it was Ohio State’s seventh-straight in conference play as the Buckeyes are currently in a three-way tie for second place in the Big Ten, just one-game back of Michigan State. But the schedule gets a little more difficult, though, with four of the next five games on the road.
Up next, the Buckeyes travel to Bloomington to take on Indiana, Wednesday night. Tip-off at Assembly Hall is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET, and the game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.
