Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Crank Up Intensity to Take St. Francis to School
By John PorentasSt. Francis University is a Catholic University run by the Franciscan order. The University espouses this as one of its core values.
"A humble and generous attitude toward learning."
P. J. Hill lays the ball up for two of his 10 points against St. Francis
Photo by Dan HarkerThe Red Flash (1-5) managed to work all that in during their visit to the Schottenstein Arena to absorb a 110-47 thrashing at the hands of the Buckeyes (5-1). They were generous enough to turn the ball over 17 times allowing the Buckeyes to outscore them 20-3 off turnovers. The schooling they took included learning the value of 62.9 percent shooting from the floor while amassing 16 assists on 39 made field goals as the Buckeyes did. As to the humble part? Scoreboard.
"We got shellacked," said St. Francis Head Coach Don Friday.
"That's a good ball club out there that we weren't able to will our style at all.
"We had really no impact on that game at all tonight.
"We got exposed and we got rung up tonight," said Friday.
"I thought in the first half our kids were a little intimidated by the atmosphere and some of the people they were going up against, so I was disappointed that we competed with fear," Friday said.
The Buckeyes simply did whatever they wanted offensively, but it was defensively where they were most impressive. The Red Flash had won just one game before venturing to Columbus, but still averaged nearly 65 points per game against opponents that included Notre Dame against whom they scored 72 points in a 95-72 loss. They shot just 26.9 percent against OSU. That pleased OSU Head Coach Thad Matta who was not particularly pleased with his team's defense in their last game against Lipscomb.
"Coach Matta after the last game said we didn't come out with enough intensity," said OSU junior point guard Evan Turner.
"In practice he really stressed intensity, he really told us to be in attack mode and I think we were focused on being in attack mode and making sure they were uncomfortable," said Turner.
The Buckeyes were able to do just that start to finish on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. Their effort took its toll on the Red Flash.
"I feel like I've been through a 15-round street fight with an 18-wheeler," said Friday.
Matta was able to clear his bench and was able to rest his starters early. William Buford logged 28 minutes, Evan Turner 27 and David Lighty 26 as Matta was able to play everyone that dressed.
A total of 11 different Buckeyes scored led by Jeremie Simmons with 18, Jon Diebler with 17, Turner with 16, Buford with 15 and P. J. Hill with 10. Center Dallas Lauderdale was spectacular on defense with six blocked shots. In all, the Buckeyes totaled 11 blocks to go with 12 steals.
OSU shot 62.9 percent from the field and was shooting over 70 percent with around five minutes to go, but cooled off from the field as the game wound down.
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