This the-Ozone basketball coverage brought to you by:

And

Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Earn Tough Road Win in Philadelphia
By John Porentas

After Ohio State's (4-0) 81-74 win over St. Joseph's (4-2) at the Palestra on Saturday it was easy to think that St. Joseph Head Coach Phil Martelli and Ohio State Head Coach Thad Matta had seen different games.

"That game had no redeeming value," said an obviously miffed Martelli.

"This is a great win for Ohio State," said an obviously pleased Matta.

What Martelli saw was a St. Joe's team that underperformed. Matta saw a Buckeye team that rose up and got it done under some tough circumstances.

"Awful, awful performance," said Martelli. "They dictated what they would do on offense. We did no dictating."

The Buckeyes had a number of people who did a little dictating, headed by senior guard Je'Kel Foster. Foster hit a three-pointer on OSU's first possession to put his team up 3-0. That would prove to be as close as the Hawks would get the rest of the game.

Six minutes into the first half, the Buckeyes led 19- 6. OSU led by 14 at 37-23 at the end of the half, partly on the strength of excellent shooting and partly on the strength of a defensive effort that left St. Joe leading scorer Chet Stachitas frustrated. Stachitas entered the game averaging 19.8 points per game and had exploded for 27 points against Kansas in St. Joe's win over the JayHawks this week. Stachitas had just six points at the half, largely due to the defensive effort of J. J. Sullinger and Ron Lewis.

"They just ignored the interior guys, and they were stepping a man-and-a-half out. When Chet came off a screen they had another man waiting for him," said Martelli.

"We knew if we didn't defend them what they were capable of. We saw that on Tuesday night against Kansas," said Sullinger.

"We knew they were going to hit every open shot, that their athletic big man inside was going to get every rebound, and they kind of got us on the boards a little bit toward the end in the second half. We knew what they were capable of so we had to match their intensity. We had to match their toughness."

Foster ended the first half with 12 points and missed just one shot. The Buckeyes shot 52% from the field, including 69.2% (9-13) from three point range. OSU hit its first seven three pointers to help establish its early lead.

"We were fortunate to come out and make some shots early and get the lead up," said Matta.

The Buckeyes remained in control until midway through the second half when a run by the Hawks cut OSU's lead to just five with 9:17 remaining. During the run, the Hawks owned the backboard and scored several baskets off offensive rebounds.

"We weren't boxing out," said guard Ron Lewis.

"We had to come back together and stay sound together. We came back together as a group and found we had to box out and collectively on the boards."

Following a Buckeye timeout, OSU's Lewis stepped up his game to serve notice that that Buckeyes were not ready to wilt under the pressure the Hawks were putting on them.

Lewis hit a three-pointer out of the timeout to extend OSU's lead to eight. A layup by Sullinger after an OSU defensive stop extended the lead back to 10.

The Buckeyes extended the lead back to 15, but the Hawks still had a run left in them. A late spurt fueled by a full court press that forced several Buckeye turnovers saw OSU's lead shrink to just four at 70-66 with just 1:03 left to play.

"Give them credit, they never went away," said Matta.

Neither did the Buckeyes, and once again it was Lewis who stepped up to stop the run. Lewis scored on a dunk on a long inbounds pass from Matt Sylvester that beat the St. Joe press and signaled the beginning of the end for the Hawks.

"Quite honestly I'd like to take credit it for it but that was Matt Sylvester's idea. He said 'I'm telling you it's going to be wide open, let me take the ball out of bounds,'" said Matta.

The last minute of the clock turned into a foul shooting contest and the Buckeyes were able to step up and make their free throws down the stretch to preserve the victory.

"This team has come a long way," said Sullinger.

"This is a huge win for us, huge win for the program, to come into a hostile environment such as this with all the history, everything around it had a good upside for St. Joseph, to come in here and will out a victory is huge for the program. It was a team effort, one through 11. The coaches did a very good job scouting. It's huge for us."

"It's like I told the guys, I don't know if we could have withstood this last year," said Matta of OSU's ability to hold off the Hawks in the late stages of the game.

Sullinger agreed.

"You think of games like Clemson, LSU, Creighton, last year we might not have pulled this one out. Fortunately this isn't last year. This is this year. We got the win," Sullinger said.

Foster ended the game with a career-high 24 points to go with a game-high 10 rebounds. Three other Buckeyes reached double figures in scoring. Lewis netted 14, Jamar Butler 13 and Sullinger 11. St. Joe's Abdulai Jalloh led all scorers with 30, but leading scorer Chet Stachitas finished with just nine and fouled out of the game.

Box Score

Return to O-Zone Column and and Features

Return to O-Zone Front Page