Men's Basketball
First Half Blitz Carries Buckeyes to NIT Final
By John Porentas

OK, maybe the Buckeyes (23-13) didn't play so well in the second half, but for a half against Mississippi (24-11) OSU played about as well as they have this season. Well enough that a second-half lapse didn't really matter, because it was game, match set when the first half ended and OSU was ticketed to the NIT final.

Ohio State jumped all over Ole Miss to take a 44-20 half time lead, then went on to cruise to an 81-69 win to advance to the final of the NIT tournament in Madison Square Garden. It was arguably the best half of basketball played by the Buckeyes this season.

"I think our press got to them and they turned the ball over a little bit, and when you turn the ball over it leads to easy baskets," said OSU senior point guard Jamar Butler.

Kosta Koufos had his way with the Rebels down low and Butler and Evan Turner lit them up from the perimeter. In the first half Butler led the way with nine points that included two threes while Turner slashed and dashed to the rim for eight more. Koufos added eight of his own. The Rebels had no answer for OSU's balanced, inside-outside attack.

Ole Miss also had no clue on solving OSU's press and matchup zone defense. The Rebels shot a miserable 28.6 percent from the field in the first half. The also turned the ball over 12 times in what can only be described as a futile effort on the offensive end. OSU outrebounded Ole Miss 31-14 in the first half. It was as thorough a domination of a quality team that the Buckeyes have put together this season, so much so that Ole Miss Head Coach Andy Kennedy hardly recognized his team.

"For people that haven't seen us play, I'm sure they are wondering how we got here," said Kennedy.

"Typically we are good rebounders and get out-rebounded by 13. Typically we don't turn it over and we turned it over 21 times. We can usually score more efficiently than we did from the foul line and the floor," Kennedy said.

At one point the Buckeyes were up 27 early in the second half, but they couldn't sustain the intensity, particularly at the defensive end. It's that way with teams sometimes, particularly young ones playing with a big lead. The Rebels were able to take advantage and went on run that cut OSU's 27 point lead to just 11 with 12:01 remaining. It was an impressive run. It was also way too little, because the outcome of the game had been decided.

When Ole Miss did cut the lead to seven late in the game the Buckeyes were able to turn to Mr. Reliable on this team, Jamar Butler, and Butler delivered.

"I think Jamar Butler is their engine and every time they needed a big play it went through him and he responded," said Kennedy.

That was never more evident than in the closing moments of the game. Ole Miss had closed to within seven, but Butler delivered a driving layup with just over a minute to play to put the game definitely out of reach.

"I wanted the ball and Coach wanted me to have it too," said Butler. " He told me to keep using the ball screens until it got down to 10 seconds and then make a play. I did," Butler said.

Thad Matta used the big lead too get some playing time for players who haven't seen much action this season, Dallas Lauderdale logged 10 minutes and P. J. Hill seven. Both are players who will be counted on next season, and despite the run by the Rebels in the second half Matta was able to get them minutes. There was really no way the Rebels were going to get back off the canvas after the knockout punch the Buckeyes laid on them in the first half.

"I thought P. J. did a tremendous job for us. He had a nice finish on the penetration and really brought great energy and gave us a boost on defense as well," said Matta.

Dallas has made tremendous progress at practice the last three weeks. We thought going into this game this was going to be a game where he could be a factor just because of his size and athleticism down there," Matta said of Lauderdale.

The Buckeyes will now meet UMass in the championship game on Thursday. UMass advanced to the final 78-66 win over Florida in the semifinals.

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