Men's Basketball
Buckeye Not Pretty, But Win Another With Victory Over Northwestern
By John Porentas
No. 12 Ohio State (19-4, 8-4 Big Ten) came out of the gate as flat as they possibly could, but still rallied for a 61-52 in over visiting Northwestern (12-12, 4-8 Big Ten) to get back on the winning track after their loss to Wisconsin this week.
. "It was a little bit alarming when they tossed up the ball and we weren't even ready to jump. I said 'Uh-oh, it's going to be a long day.' I thought we were ready to go, I really did, but obviously we didn't have the juice," said OSU Head Coach Thad Matta of his team's slow start.
The Buckeyes were playing their third game in six days and got bad news before the start of the game when usual starting forward Matt Sylvester was sidelined with severe back spasms. That put usual sub Ron Lewis into the starting lineup and left the OSU bench very short.
At the 12:00 mark of the first period OSU had 12 missed shots, four turnovers and one missed free throw to its credit, as well as one made free throw. Along the way, Northwestern built a 13-1 lead.
"We could not buy a basket. I liked the shots we got. We just didn't make them," said Matta.
OSU did not collect its first field goal until Lewis made a jumper to cut Minnesota's lead to 13-3, and while they didn't exactly get hot, they were able to claw their way back into the game the half, mostly by means of a defensive effort that would not allow the Wildcats to separate despite OSU's offensive woes. The Buckeyes actually took the lead at the half, 21-20, but outscoring Northwestern 18-7 over the last 12 minutes of the half.
"To our guys' credit they kept defending and held them to 20 points in the first half," said Matta.
The Buckeyes picked up right where they left off to start the second 20 minutes. They opened the half with a 15-4 run to open up a 12 point lead. Guard Je'Kel Foster got things rolling with a pair of steals, each of which ended up in fast break layups for the Buckeyes.
"We had a good start and they came back," said Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody.
"At the beginning of the second half they just came after us and we were not able to handle it. Their pressure on our guards really bothered us a lot."
OSU led by as many as 15, but the Wildcats had one last charge left in them. Borrowing from OSU's playbook, the Wildcats were able to turn over the OSU guards to create fast break layup opportunities and cut into OSU's lead. They scored nine straight on two field goals by Vedran Vukusic and two layups and a free throw by Mohamed Hackad. A pair of free throws by Jamar Butler stopped the run, but not Hackad. Hackad scored Northwestern's next 10 points as OSU's lead was cut to just two points on two different occasions.
"I took him out for while and when Mohamed went back in he looked like a changed guy. He and Secant I thought did a nice job defensively, got their hands on a lot of passes and we were able to get back into the game," said Carmody.
"The second half we get that lead and I told them the lesson we get out of this game is we have to keep our toughness for 40 minutes," said Matta.
"We can't let up. They got us two straight times in transition, two straight times on the same ball-screen play, you've got to have more awareness and toughness than that."
For the second straight game, Ohio State was ineffective from three point range, making just three of 23 attempts against the Wildcats. According to Carmody, that had little to do with defense. It was just a bad shooting day for the Buckeyes.
"I think they got some pretty good looks. They just missed them. I'm not sure our defense had much to do with it. I don't know if we had much to do with their missing shots, but they did miss," said Carmody.
With the shots not falling, the Buckeyes had to find another way to score, and did so by hitting the offensive glass. OSU got a season-high 18 offensive rebounds and outscored Northwestern 19-4 in stickback points.
"Obviously the offensive boards killed us," said Carmody.
The Buckeyes were able to regain control of the game with their work on the glass, earning second-chance baskets with strong rebounding to re-establish their lead over the final 3:44.
Matta did not substitute in the second half, going the entire 20 minutes with J. J. Sullinger, Lewis, Terence Dials, Jamar Butler and Foster.
"Honestly it was just a feel that those guys had come out and extended it to 13 points. I thought we had great flow. I thought we had a great understanding of what we were trying to do offensively and they were trying to do defensively and I just didn't want to disrupt it," said Matta.
Four of OSU's starters reached double figures, led by Sullinger with 16. Lewis, Dials and Butler added 15, 14 and 12 each respectively.
Ohio State was just three-of-23 from three point range. In their last two games, OSU has made seven-of-40 three point attempts (17.5 per cent).
Box Score
Game Photos
Schedule and Results
Roster