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February 15, 2016May the Buckeyes Have This Dance?
February 15, 2016Ohio State has had their fair share of struggles so far this season, but they did what they had to do last week against two of teams in the Big Ten who they should have beaten, including a Rutgers team that has yet to win a conference game this season.
Buckeyes took care of business against Northwestern, 71-63
After beating the Wildcats 65-56 in their gym in early January, Ohio State beat them again — this time in Columbus — to break their two game losing skid, 71-63.
Like usual, the scarlet and gray started slow – again – and trailed 33-26 at halftime. Luckily for them, the young Bucks played much better in the second half and dominated Northwestern in the final 20 minutes. They outscored Northwestern in the second half, 45-30, to secure the victory Tuesday night. Forward Trevor Thompson made sure to point out how the Buckeyes were able to make their second half comeback following the game.
“I feel like the biggest thing was we just had to wake up. Coach said we have to lose ourselves in playing for Ohio State and lose ourselves as a team. I feel like in the second half we did a really good job of having fun and enjoying ourselves and playing as a team.”
Whether it was the fact that the players played better or not, head coach Thad Matta acknowledged that his halftime speech may have been one of the reasons why his Buckeyes turned it around in the second half.
“When you lose yourself in just playing the game of basketball and whatever happens happens, we’re a lot better basketball team. I was very animated at halftime in terms of that. Just play the game. You guys work so hard in practice. This is the fun time, where you get the rewards to it. Fortunately we stuck with it and were able to finish it out.”
Ohio State, who had a season-low five turnovers, not only made their last 16 free throws (were 19-of-23 overall), but also had all five starters score in double figures: JaQuan Lyle (16 points, six rebounds, one steal), Marc Loving (15 points, two rebounds, five assists, one steal, one block), Trevor Thompson (12 points, nine rebounds), Keita Bates-Diop (11 points, eight rebounds, one steal, two blocks), and Jae’Sean Tate (10 points, seven rebounds).
One of the few low points – besides the first half – for the Bucks was the fact that they only had seven bench points and only one bench player (Kam Williams’ 27 minutes) played at least 10 minutes. They also only had eight assists on 23 made field goals as well, which must improve.
Ohio State takes down Rutgers, 79-69
Like they did against Northwestern earlier in the week, the young Bucks beat Rutgers for the second time this season, 79-69, to win their second game of the week. Unlike Tuesday night, Ohio State played very well in the first 20 minutes, holding a 35-26 halftime lead that was fueled by a 16-0 run midway through the half., and didn’t allow the Scarlet Knights to come back in the second half to secure the win.
Matta thought his Buckeyes came out with ready to play, and actually thought that they had a harder morning practice than the way they played in the game.
“This is first team I’ve ever had in 16 years as a head coach that actually practiced harder this morning at shoot-around at 9 o’clock, than we played in the game today, for whatever reason. But we got what we came for and that was the win. We did not play smart today.”
They may have allowed 69 points, but Ohio State’s defense played well against Rutgers. They held the Scarlet Knights to make 38 percent of their field goals, including just 15 percent from the three-point line.
For the second time this season, the scarlet and gray had two players with double-doubles: Keita Bates-Diop (24 points, 14 rebounds, one steal, one block) and Marc Loving (22 points, 13 rebounds, one steal). Kam Williams (19 points, two steals) was the only other player to score in double figures. Also, outside of Williams, Ohio State’s bench scored just two points Saturday afternoon.
The Bucks may have won, but their free-throw percentage (53.3 percent) and eight turnovers – again – must improve against more talented teams.
Following the win, Williams, who made four three-pointers on Saturday, mentioned that Ohio State cannot look ahead to certain games and must played game-by-game in order to have a shot to make the NCAA Tournament.
“We know we’ve got to keep chipping away every day in practice and if we keep having good practices we obviously need to translate it over to the game. It’s a game-by-game mentality. We can’t look to a game two weeks ahead.”
Coming up this week:
Tuesday vs. Michigan (19-7, 9-4), 7:00 p.m. ET
Saturday at Nebraska (17-9, 5-8), 7:00 p.m. ET
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