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Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Massacre Illini on Valentine’s Day
By Brandon CastelCHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Hailed as one of the biggest games of the year between two hot teams fighting for Big Ten supremacy, Sunday’s battle between Ohio State and Illinois turned into a one-sided bloodbath at Assembly Hall.
Jon Diebler launches for three against Illinois. Diebler scored a game-high 18 points on six of 11 shooting from three point range.
Photo by Jim DavidsonThe 13th-ranked Buckeyes shot 53 percent from the floor and 50 percent from behind the arc as they ran the Fighting Illini out of their own gym in a 72-53 massacre that could go a long way in determining the regular-season conference champion.
While much of the hype coming into the game was on Chicago native Evan Turner and his matchup with former St. Joseph’s teammate Demetri McCamey, it was Turner’s teammates who propelled the Buckeyes (20-6, 10-3 Big Ten) to their ninth straight win in conference play.
Jon Diebler knocked down six threes and David Lighty added 17 points as the Buckeyes brought Illinois’ (17-9, 9-4) five game-winning streak to a screeching halt in what may have been the team’s best all-around performance of the season.
“A few days can make a big difference in how you feel. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves and Ohio State came out and took it to us right from the get-go,” Illinois Head Coach Bruce Weber said after the loss, only the second at home this season.
The Illini were coming off a 63-56 win over No. 11 Wisconsin Tuesday after upsetting fifth-ranked Michigan State in this building just over a week ago. But the Buckeyes got out to a 30-12 run in the first 13 minutes of the game behind three triples from Diebler, who seemed to be feeling it from behind the arc all afternoon.
“They have a lot of weapons and when they shoot like this it makes it tough to deal with,” said Weber, whose team dropped a game back of first-place Ohio State and Michigan State.
“Diebler, when he’s on, he’s on. He’s one of the better three point shooters in the country and he was making tough shots tonight. He was coming off screens and not even squaring his body and knocking down shots.”
After giving up a few quick baskets in the early going, the Buckeyes went on an 18-6 to take a 21-10 lead at the 11:48 mark of the first half. With the Illini struggling to find the basket against OSU’s 1-3-1 zone, Assembly Hall quickly turned from a typically hostile environment to a lazy afternoon shoot-around for Diebler and his teammates.
“They definitely took the noise out of the place. It was totally different than last week,” Weber said in reference to his team’s win over the Spartans.
“You could hear everybody talking out there, they definitely took the energy out of the place, but that’s what you have to do on the road.”
The Buckeyes pushed their lead to 13 points at 25-12 on a thunderous one-handed dunk from Lighty, who went 6-of-8 from the floor and 3-of-5 from behind the arc while knocking down both of his free throw attempts.
“Lighty is a tough matchup for us,” Weber said of the junior captain who scored 12 of his 17 points in the first half.
“They hurt us in transition a little bit and the thing I feared was Lighty in transition. Your four-men are used to running back to the paint and now he’s out there on the perimeter as another ball handler.”
As for Ohio State’s primary ball-handler, it was hardly the best showing of the year for Turner. And yet the national player of the year candidate finished just two assists shy of a triple-double in his return to Illinois.
“That’s just ET,” Lighty said of his friend and teammate.
“Coming off ball screens, it’s hard to stop him. He doesn’t have to score points for our team to win. We have other weapons we can use.”
Turner had just four points at the half after going 1-of-6 from the floor, but he found his groove in the second half as he torched the Illini for 16 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists in 38 minutes.
“To be honest, I thought D.J. (Richardson) did a pretty good job on him. Never really let him get going. He hit some pull-ups, but if he’s going to hit those we’ve got to give him something,” Weber said of the player he once tried to recruit.
The Illini cut the lead to 14 points midway through the second half as they tried to rally for a comeback against the Buckeyes much like West Virginia did in a similar situation earlier this year. Richardson’s jumper made it 50-36 with 10:31 to play, but the Buckeyes ripped off a 10-2 run to put the game away for good.
“As soon as we came in for halftime I said ‘don’t let this be like West Virginia,’” Lighty recalled after the game.
“They’ve been down before and came back many times before. We wanted to keep pressuring as much as possible and keep attacking them.”
After knocking down a three from the top of the arc, Lighty drove the lane for an easy layup off the glass. He stole the ball on the next possession and hit Turner for a pull up jump shot before Jeremie Simmons splashed a three from the corner that gave Ohio State a 22-point lead at 60-38.
For the Illini, McCamey led all scorers with just nine points as no player scored in double figures. He shot 4-of-12 from the floor and 0-of-4 from behind the arc, but did finish with nine assists.
The Buckeyes return home Wednesday to face Purdue (6:30 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network) in the second of three straight big games that will conclude with a trip to East Lansing next Sunday.
Game Notes
* The Buckeyes beat Illinois by 19 points (72-53) in Assembly Hall Sunday. They lost by 18 points (67-49) the last time they played in this building.
* Head Coach Thad Matta won his 20th game of the season Sunday. He has now won 20 or more games in all 10 seasons as a head coach, including all six at Ohio State.
* With the win, the Buckeyes move back into a tie for first place with Michigan State, both of whom are 10-3 in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes and Spartans will face off one week from today in East Lansing.
* The Buckeyes have now won nine straight games in Big Ten play since starting the season 1-3. They have won their last four conference games on the road after dropping the first three.
* Evan Turner scored 16 points to go with 11 rebounds and eight assists in his homecoming. He fell two assists shy of his third triple-double the season.
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