Men's Basketball
Hoops Note and Quotebook
By John Porentas

Finding a Role: OSU senior guard Ron Lewis has been the source of some frustration for OSU fans this season. Lewis can delight them at times, but at times seems to anxious to jack up three point attempts, not always with the best results.

Lewis was 0-4 from three point range against Penn State and part of OSU's scoring problems in the first half when he missed three of those four and scored just three points. Lewis, however, was a vital cog in OSU's second half offensive outburst when he pretty much forgot about the three and did what he does best, getting out in transition and going to the rim.

"We had that speed on the floor. Ron Lewis was tremendous getting out and running the wing and we had some pretty good finishes," said OSU Head Coach Thad Matta of Lewis' play in the second half.

"I think our transition game really picked up in the second half," added point guard Mike Conley.

"Ron Lewis did a great job of getting down the court. That led to some easy buckets and we got some stops on defense.

"He's so athletic, probably the most athletic person on the team," Conley said.

"With him his scoring ability is when he's able to run in the open court. If you get him the ball he can score in situations. He's really good at that. I think we took advantage of that in the second half."

Lewis finished the game with 11 points, seven of them on free throws as he used his athletic ability to get to the rim and draw fouls. He also had two impressive dunks and an assist.

Binary Day for Ivan: 192. In decimal terms, that was what Ivan Harris' stat line looked like when converted from binary form. Against Penn State Harris had one personal foul, one rebound, no points, no turnovers, no blocks, no steals, no field goals and no free throws. That's a line of 1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0. For you binary fans, it's a nice stat line, but probably not what Thad Matta had in mind for a starter. For those of you whose cup is half-full, just call it a 192-type of day.

Now it's the other arm: Greg Oden has spent the season trying to recover from an injury to his right wrist that has limited his effectiveness at times this season. Oden left the game against Penn State for a short time with an obvious injury to his left wrist. Oden said it was not a new injury, but an aggravation of an injury suffered earlier this year.

"He (his defender) just kind of bent my arm back. It started hurting my elbow. It's been bothering me since the Purdue game. I think Carl Landry had a layup and I jumped up and tried to block it and hit the backboard and it's been hurting ever since then. It's not that bad but when he bent it back it hurt," said Oden.

Oden added that he does not think the injury will cause him to miss any game time.

Penn State game story

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