Men's Basketball
Foster Shoots Buckeyes to Win Over Gophers
By John Porentas
Senior guard Je'Kel Foster went seven-of-eight from three point range to lead the Buckeyes with 25 points and enable OSU (16-3, 5-3 Big Ten) to defeat Minnesota (10-9, 1-7 Big Ten) by a final of 67-53.
The Buckeyes had been eying this game since last season when the Gophers were one of just two teams to defeat them twice, the other being Wisconsin. Ohio State has now avenged both of those double-defeats with wins over both the Badgers and Gophers this season.
"We had to live with two tough losses to these guys," said OSU Head Coach Thad Matta.
Minnesota's packed-in defense left room for Ohio State's three-point shooters and Foster was able to take advantage. Point guard Jamar Butler also had a solid game from three point range hitting two of his three attempts. For the day, Ohio State shot 45 per cent from three point range on nine-of-20 shooting from beyond the arc.
"The area we said we had to control we didn't," said Minnesota Head Coach Dan Monson. "That was taking away the three from them. We knew Dials was going to be a handful to do that but as we did against Indiana, we've got to be able to dictate threes. I just think Foster really got going and we were trading twos for threes a lot."
Foster's scoring was aided by a very solid defensive effort by the Buckeyes and an effective day in the paint by Terence Dials. Dials drew a double team all day, thereby helping to open up the perimeter, but still managed to score 15 points on six-of-11 shooting from the field three-of-six free throw shooting.
"The second half I thought Terence was just tremendous," said Matta. "We did a nice job of getting him the job where he could score."
"They're a very tough team to guard when they get into an offensive flow, and they got into an offensive flow," said Monson. "Obviously they did a great job."
Ohio State shot 54.3 per cent from the field for the game while the Gophers managed to shoot just 41.7 per cent against a tenacious OSU defense that took Minnesota deep into the shot clock on numerous possessions. The Gophers were often their own worst enemy in the game offensively with 18 turnovers, many of which came with little or no pressure from the Buckeye defense.
"A sign of toughness is how you value the ball," said Monson. "Our 18 turnovers, a lot of them were just not being very tough mentally. We made a lot of mistakes mentally."
Minnesota's only lead in the game came at 2-0, and the game was tied just once at 2-2. Ohio State was in control the rest of the way. The Buckeyes led by as many as eight in the first half and took a five point lead at 33-28 at the intermission. Minnesota scored the first four points of the second half and closed to within one at 33-32, but the Buckeyes then went on a 8-0 run to re-extend the lead to nine.
The Gophers could get no closer to three the rest of the way and OSU's final margin of 14 was the largest margin of the day.
Ohio State was able to limit Minnesota's leading scorer Vincent Greer to just nine points. Greer was held scoreless in the first half by the Buckeyes.
"With a player of his caliber you've got to have all five guys aware of where he is," said Matta.
"I felt like that was a very good win for us today," said Matta.
"Minnesota plays kind of a unique style. They're going to make you grind it out. They're very physical, very tough, they execute," Matta said.
"As I told the kids after the game, I think we've grown a little bit from the standpoint that that game was a carbon copy of the two games we played last year. I thought that for whatever reason we've grown in some areas to make plays, to guard better in certain situations."