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Men's Basketball Buckeyes Outscore Wolverines in Wild One
By Jeff Svoboda
A year ago, Michigan's men's basketball team came to Value City Arena and before the Wolverines could get their bearings, OSU was running away with what would
be a 72-46 victory.
That same set-up looked to be playing out Thursday night. This time, however, it was No. 22 Michigan (16-5, 6-4 Big Ten) pulling out to a 21-8 lead and the Buckeyes on the ropes. With Crisler Arena jumping, coach Thad Matta called a timeout to rally the troops. His words of wisdom?
"I told them we needed to start shooting threes at that point," Matta said with a grin after the game.
His charges certainly did. The No. 17/19 Buckeyes (17-3, 6-3 Big Ten) made 11 of their last 12 treys in the first half and a season-high 15 overall to come back and take a 94-85 victory in front of 12,788 fans.
Updated Big Ten Standings 2/9/06
Big Ten
Overall
Teams
W
L
Pct.
W
L
Pct.
Iowa
7
3
.700
18
6
.750
Illinois
6
3
.667
20
3
.870
MSU
6
3
.667
18
5
.783
Ohio State
6
3
.667
17
3
.850
Michigan
6
4
.600
16
5
.762
Wisconsin
6
4
.600
16
7
.696
Indiana
5
4
.556
13
7
.650
Northwestern
4
6
.400
11
10
.524
Penn State
3
7
.300
11
10
.524
Minnesota
2
7
.222
11
9
.555
Purdue
2
9
.182
8
14
.364
The win puts Ohio State in a three-way, second-place tie in the Big Ten with Illinois and Michigan State, with each team just a half-game back of Iowa. OSU will meet the Fighting Illini Sunday in Value City Arena. The loss marked the first time Michigan has dropped two in a row this season and was just the Wolverines' second home loss.
Point guard Jamar Butler led five Buckeyes in double figures with 20 points, and the sophomore added five assists compared to just one turnover. In addition, Butler led OSU down the stretch, as the Buckeyes made eight straight shots to turn a 70-68 deficit into a 84-75 lead that put OSU out of reach.
"He had a great command about himself tonight, just controlling the basketball and controlling our tempo," Matta said. "I thought late in the game he knew when to put the brakes on, when to go in transition. He really did a fantastic job from that standpoint."
The momentum also shifted with 8:29 left when Michigan guard Dion Harris went down with an ankle injury after a basket by Butler. Harris would not return, and in his absence, the Wolverines could not get the ball underneath to center Courtney Sims, who had dominated OSU to the tune of 26 points and 16 rebounds for the game.
After tying the score at 68 at the 10:04 mark, Sims would not attempt another shot until the game was out of reach. Buckeye center Terence Dials would also re-enter the game with three fouls 22 seconds after Sims' bucket and worked to keep Sims off the board.
"I just wanted to play defense," Dials said. "Courtney Sims probably had a career day today, and I didn't get to play as much. I just wanted to come in and prevent him from getting the easy buckets that he was getting."
Varied offense led OSU down the stretch. A dunk from guard Ron Lewis started OSU's run and was followed by a Butler drive, a 15-footer from forward Matt Sylvester and another dunk from Lewis after a steal by Dials. The Buckeyes then added a jumper from Butler, a leaner from Dials, a steal and jam from Sylvester and an acrobatic lay-up by Dials after a cutting pass from Je'Kel Foster. OSU shot 70.4 percent (19-of-27) in the half altogether.
It was in sharp contrast to OSU's first-half offense, which consisted of threes, threes, and more threes. Michigan jumped out to the 21-8 lead thanks to the inside play of Sims and outside shooting of Harris, but the Buckeyes answer was their own Harris -- junior forward Ivan.
His 3-pointer made it 21-13 and started the Buckeyes run of 13 out of 14 made 3-pointers. After J.J. Sullinger and Butler hit back-to-back treys, Harris added another, then a 2-pointer that counted because of goaltending by the Wolverines, and then finally his third three of the half.
"We can give credit to Ivan Harris," Lewis said. "He came in and sparked us. That got us going and we kept going after that."
Harris then had another go in and out, but then the makes came fast and furious from his teammates. Foster gave OSU its first lead at 32-31, then made two more in a row, Sullinger added one, Lewis another and Butler capped off the half. After the break, Sullinger started the second-half scoring with a bomb, and Foster extended his personal streak to 12 in a row before he missed OSU's next attempt.
"They were good shots," Matta said. "In the first half, we couldn't get a good look at the basket. I thought that helped open things up for the rest of the game."
Foster ended 5-of-6 from beyond the arc with 17 points, Lewis added 14, Sullinger 13 and Harris 11. Daniel Horton had 15 points and 10 assists for Michigan, Ron Coleman added 15 points, Dion Harris 14 and Chris Hunter 13. The Wolverines out-rebounded OSU 37-22 but the Buckeyes had 20 assists to just 8 turnovers.
Midway through the second half, forward Brent Petway left with an injury for Michigan, which was without wing Lester Abram for the second straight game because
of an ankle injury.