Right: Ohio State’s Evan Turner, minus the cape, acknowledges his three-pointer at the buzzer after it was reviewed by officials that beat Michigan. (Getty Images)
John who?
If there’s was any type of a two-horse race for National Player of the Year awards, that just ended today after Evan Turner drained a three-pointer with .3 seconds left to give fifth-ranked and top-seeded Ohio State a 69-68 win over eighth-seeded Michigan at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis during the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament.
The Buckeyes trailed by a deuce with 2.2 seconds remaining after Michigan’s Manny Harris drove to the basket to give the Wolverines a 68-66 lead. After a timeout, though, Michigan head coach John Beilein decided against guarding the inbound pass and let Turner race up the court for the decisive triple.
Maybe Michigan should hire all of their coaches from West Virginia, seeing how well its worked for them so far. The relaxed defense at the end of the game was a total brain fart and Turner made them play dearly for it.
One thing is for sure. It seemed that Ohio State nearly ran out of gas late in the game, though I am going to assume that’s because of the 10-day layoff between contests. The Buckeyes last played on March 2 against Illinois, while other Big Ten teams finished their regular seasons last weekend. The rust was definitely evident early on as OSU trailed 19-10 halfway through the first half, but regained their form to take a 35-25 lead heading into the intermission break.
In the second half, the Buckeyes still held a 10-point advantage after Turner and the Harris traded triples midway through the second stanza.
But Michigan slowly chipped away at their deficit and with 1:06 to go, Stu Douglass’ trey tied the game at 64-all.
Harris’ jumper gave the Wolverines a two-point lead with 30 seconds left before David Lighty’s runner in the lane tied the game once again with 13.2 ticks remaining.
When it appeared that the contest was heading into an overtime session, Harris put Michigan on top by two once again with 2.2 seconds left on a 10-foot jumper before Superman saved the day for Ohio State.
Turner finished with 18 points, three rebounds and eight assists. Lighty and Buford each added 15, while Jon Diebler chipped in 11. Backup center Kyle Madsen came of the bench to contribute eight points.
The Buckeyes were 27-of-52 (51.9%) from the field and 7-of-12 from three-point land. The Wolverines shot 49.0 percent from the floor and were 8-of-21 from downtown. What put Michigan back into the game was that they were 7-of-13 in threes in the second half after going 1-of-8 in the first 20 minutes of action.
Michigan held a 23-21 advantage in rebounding and both teams committed 11 turnovers.
Up next, Ohio State will play the winner of Wisconsin/Illinois in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament, Saturday afternoon. Tip-off at Conseco Fieldhouse is scheduled for 1:40 p.m. ET, and the game will be televised on CBS.
