Cleveland Browns Week 15 Winners and Losers
December 21, 2015Cleveland Browns, a complete disaster — WFNY Top 10 Cleveland Sports Stories: No 7
December 21, 2015While college football bowl season has begun, the Ohio State basketball team didn’t want people to forget about them, and even put the whole country on notice as well. For the first time this season, the Buckeyes won both of their games this past week.
Ohio State dominates second half, beats Northern Illinois, 67-54
In a game many believed the Buckeyes would look passed in anticipation of their weekend matchup against Kentucky, the scarlet and gray started slow but eventually made it look easy against the Huskies. Holding just a 33-31 lead at half, Ohio State outscored Northern Illinois in the second half, 34-23, a second half that forward Jae’Sean Tate made sure to point out postgame.
“When we came out [of halftime] we just had that Buckeye basketball sense to us. Getting on the ground for loose balls, being in the gaps, we just played harder and we got the win,” the sophomore said.
Ohio State held the Huskies to shoot just under 27 percent from the field and 28 percent from behind the arc, something that head coach Thad Matta was definitely happy about.
“Our defense is something we are constantly trying to build with this team because we don’t have that one guy who can get a hot hand and we can just defer to them and say ‘you got them’. Our guys now have to be connected and have to be playing together and seeing things happen especially their rotations,” Matta said.
Two Buckeyes had double-doubles: Jae’Sean Tate (17 points, 10 rebounds, two assists, three steals) and Keita Bates-Diop (14 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks). Trevor Thompson was the other Ohio State player to score in double digits, with 10 points, eight rebounds (five offensive, and three blocks.
Once again, the scarlet and gray struggled from the free-throw line, making just 63 percent (19-of-30) against Northern Illinois
The win was the Buckeyes second consecutive win and pushed them to a even 5-5 on the season.
Ohio State upsets No. 4 Kentucky in the Brooklyn, 74-67
In a Saturday matinee on national television, the Buckeyes started hot and didn’t let up (besides at times during the second half), in their stunning upset over one of the best teams in the country: the Kentucky Wildcats.
Holding a 12-point halftime lead at 37-25, Ohio State began to crumble in the second half when Kentucky began to pressure the Bucks full-court. But, the young Buckeyes bent but didn’t break, with the help of their two guards: freshmen JaQuan Lyle and A.J. Harris. Even Marc Loving (who is the lone junior on this year’s team) took notice of the young guys effort on breaking the press.
“Just poise under pressure,” Loving said. “JaQuan (Lyle) and A.J. (Harris) really ran the show and we have to follow those guys. They handled the pressure the majority of the time.
Although it was a neutral-site game, the majority of the crowd was decked out in Kentucky blue, and the arena became very loud when the Wildcats cut the lead to just four, at 67-63 with just under three minutes remaining.
With the win, Loving and the rest of his teammates knew that they were an underdog and that no one beloved they could upset one of the best teams in the country.
“Being an underdog, we had nothing to lose. We had a chip on our shoulder from the beginning and we felt very, very prepared for this game and we executed our system,” the junior said.
“Just playing a team the caliber of Kentucky, everybody thinks you’re going to lose the game except for the guys in the locker room…So just having that bond together and that tight knit group, made us be able to pull this victory out.”
All eight Ohio State players who saw the floor had at least six points, with four Bucks scoring in double-digits: Keita Bates-Diop (14 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals), Marc Loving (12 points, eight rebounds, two assists, three steals), JaQuan Lyle (11 points, two assists, two steals), and Trevor Thompson (10 points, five rebounds).
Thompson and Daniel Giddens outplayed their counterparts, who were obviously considered some of the best recruits in the country when they committed to head coach John Calipari and Kentucky. Giddens (six points, three rebounds) and Jae’Sean Tate (six points, 10 rebounds) may not have scored in double-digits but they had plenty of hustle plays that benefited the Buckeyes tremendously.
Obviously, Thad Matta was very happy with his team’s performance. “We had two days to prepare for this and it was a little bit of a different game plan,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. “These guys did a tremendous job of understanding in a short period of time of what we were going to attempt to do. The fact that [Jamal] Murray got rolling today, that was one of the best performances I’ve seen in a short period of time. But the defense was definitely the key for us. We did not let our offense affect our defense when we had some tough stretches and that was big.”
How impressive was this win? The last time an unranked Ohio State team took down a Top 5 opponent on a neutral court was on November 29, 1981, when the Buckeyes upet No. 5 Georgetown, 47-46, in the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage, Alaska.
For the first time since they started the season 2-0, the scarlet and gray are above-.500 (at 6-5) and have now won two consecutive games. A stunning win like this could be season-changing for Thad Matta’s squad.
Coming up this week:
Tuesday vs. Mercer Bears (9-2), 9:00 p.m. ET
Sunday vs. South Carolina State (5-7), 6:00 p.m. ET