Over 40 minutes, the defense played by the Ohio State men's basketball team "was not where it needed to be," coach Thad Matta said.
"We'd better get real good at that real quick or there's going to be some long nights for us."
For about six minutes last night, though, it was real good, and that was all the time Ohio State needed to take care of Ashland in its first exhibition game of the season.
Freshman Eric Wallace, one of seven Buckeyes making his college debut, had six points and two steals in a 13-0 first-half run that headed Ohio State toward an 88-59 victory in Value City Arena.
Jamar Butler, David Lighty, Othello Hunter and freshmen Jon Diebler and Kosta Koufos started for Ohio State. Wallace was part of a second group that came off the bench and turned a three-point deficit into a 10-point lead.
"Those guys provided a spark," Matta said.
The 7-foot Koufos and 6-8 Hunter were too big for the Division II Eagles to handle, finishing with double-doubles to lead the Buckeyes. Each had 15 points and 12 rebounds. Lighty had 13 points for the Buckeyes, who had 11 players score and 10 contribute to a total of 23 assists, including seven by Butler.
Guard Brett Bartlett had 15 points, all on three-pointers, to lead Ashland. Freshman Kale Richardson of Bloom-Carroll scored 14.
Ohio State trailed 12-9 when the reserves got more active and aware on defense and forced Ashland into turnovers on five of its next eight possessions.
The Buckeyes converted each into points in a 13-0 run that put them in command, 22-12, with 8:39 left in the first half. Besides Wallace, freshman Eric Turner had a steal and freshman Dallas Lauderdale a blocked shot in the run.
"That happens every day in practice," Wallace said. "Thad Matta expects us to come out ready and get in the flow of the game as quickly as possible. We were talking on defense, working hard, helping each other out, and that's how things fell into place."
Wallace, a 6-foot-5 jumping jack, had seven points, four rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots in 15 minutes.
"Eric did what he could do, which is use his athleticism," Matta said. "He got some rebounds out of his area, did a good job making the extra pass, moving the ball, and I thought his defense was pretty good."
The Buckeyes play their second and final exhibition Tuesday night against Findlay in Value City Arena.
The regular season begins Nov. 12 at home against Wisconsin-Green Bay in the first round of the NIT Season Tip-Off.
"We've obviously got a ways to go," Matta said. "We didn't want to run a whole lot (of offense) tonight, sort of letting the guys read and make plays. We've got to get that stuff eventually going for us where we're really executing our half-court offense."
Team Russell Westbrook Team Conor McGregor
Haters gonna Hate.
silverbullet97
HOF - The Coach "Earle Bruce" Award Winner
Post by silverbullet97 on Nov 1, 2007 7:46:01 GMT -5
I was one of about 300 peopkle that went to last night's game. (OK so that was an exaggeration) Ohio State looked OK last night. Pretty good in fact for a first game. Butler's back up (P.J. Hill) is really small.
On the negative side, they had way too many turnovers. Alot of them were just sloppy play and poor execution. Butler's shot was off last night. I didn't look at his stats but he just never looked comfortable. Terwilliger still looks lost when the ball is in his hands. Madsen looks like a less skilled version of Terwilliger.
On the positive side. Kuofos has real moves. He looked like a player. Ligthy is just fun to watch. He is wild like Chris Jent but he is also clearly very skilled. Butler's back up is really quick. Butler can still run the offense. Terwilliger can play D. Hunter looks ready to step up. Dallas Lauderdale looks pretty good eve though he is third team right now.
Post by ohiostatesgreat on Nov 7, 2007 16:42:18 GMT -5
That surprices me that our D isn't good. Coach Matta usually gets his teams to play great defense. I knew we would have ball handling problems since Butler hasn't really done to much of that in the past season.
silverbullet97
HOF - The Coach "Earle Bruce" Award Winner
Post by silverbullet97 on Nov 8, 2007 12:56:23 GMT -5
The interior D was pretty good, but out on the perimeter they seem to lose their guys too often. I really think we are just seeing a lot of inexperience.
Man that was a game.