The undefeated Buckeyes welcomed the Catamounts of Western Carolina to St. John Arena on a snowy day in Columbus. Western Carolina definitely didn’t feel welcome, however, as the Buckeyes blitzed ahead to a big 85-60 win. 5 Buckeyes broke into double figures with 10 scholarship members of the bench seeing playing time during the game. Jared Sullinger led the Buckeyes with 17 points and 5 rebounds for the game.
The Catamounts started out the game in a man-to-man defensive set. The Bucks did a good job using screens to free up shooters, though early on the ball didn’t find the bottom of the basket as often as it probably should have. Surprisingly, though Sullinger started off with the first points of the game, Carolina was succeeding in taking him out of the OSU offensive gameplan at the beginning. Luckily, with Sullinger being smothered, Buford turned his game on and found a couple early shots to give the Bucks the lead.
Given the way Matta has been subbing the last couple games, it was surprising to see him put Aaron Craft and Deshaun Thomas into the game before the first TV timeout. Hopefully that’s a trend that continues well into the future as both of those guys are too good to sit for long. Jordan Sibert also got a bit of time out on the court in the first half, something he desperately needed to get with his skill sets. That’s not even mentioning Weatherspoon and Smith who should start to see more time as the season wears on.
Once the Bucks settled down into the game, baskets started falling more easily. Jon Diebler gave Ohio State a three pointer to put the team into double digits and really secure the momentum in the game. It spoke volumes on the defensive end as the Buckeyes picked up 3 quick steals which put the Catamounts in an even deeper hole.
Western began to get the scoring underway with a quick three pointer off a nice inbounds pass that clearly caught the Buckeyes off guard. It gave the Cat’s a little confidence in the game, but with such a deep deficit, it was going to take a lot more before they could be in a position to strike. A 9-0 turnover differential in the first 10 minutes tends to make offense extremely difficult, especially on an opponant’s court.
With 6 minutes left in the first half, Carolina began to find some success against the Buckeye’s man defense. The first evidence for that was a nice job passing around the perimeter to find the open three after being unable to find an open look under the basket. The second was on the next possession when the Cat’s got the ball down low again, but managed to fake out the defender and lay the ball in the hoop. Unfortunately, the turnovers and fouls continued to hurt Western as they allowed the Buckeyes to take 13 shots from the stripe while taking none themselves through 16 minutes of play.
The Bucks really started to run away with the game after finding Lauderdale twice in a row for big slams. Both shots really got the crowd going which amped up the Buckeye D. The Bucks even almost got a third Lauderdale bucket in a row, but Lauderdale decided to try to lay it in instead of go for the slam and dribbled the ball off the rim.
A big concern for this Buckeye team has to be the rebounding. Despite having a big advantage in size on the opponants, the Bucks regularly give up a 2-1 rebounding advantage, which is usually even worse on the offensive glass. It’s hard to tell if its simply slow reaction times by the big men, or a lack of desire by the guards to hit the glass for the tough rebounds – which I doubt with Buford picking up more rebounds than Sullinger – but clearly something needs to be fixed.
At the half, the Buckeyes maintained a 42-25 lead on the strength of 12 points from Jared Sullinger – 8 of which came from free throws. The Buckeyes shot a solid 48.1% (13-27) from the floor and 44.4% (4-9) from three – a higher percentage than they have all season long. In comparison, Western Carolina hit 45.5% (10-22) from the floor and 75% (3-4) from three. The majority of the scoring for Carolina came from four of their bench players, who hit 18 of Carolina’s 25 points. The shooting percentage for their bench was a disgusting 7-8 (87.5%) from the floor and 2-2 (100%) from three.
The start of the second half was more of the same from both teams. The Bucks quickly sank 5 points on the strength of their jump shooting, including a great 3 pointer from Diebler. The Cat’s struggled a little bit on offense, though they did find an open look from three after a bit of a defensive breakdown by the Bucks. It was also aided by some great screens by Carolina to free up their shooters.
The Buckeyes did a fantastic job of being aggressive on the offensive end at the beginning of the second half. Twice Buckeye big-men were able to pick up an and-one against the WCU defenders to increase the free-throw disparity in the game. It also forced Richie Gordon, WCU’s starting big-man in a 4 guard, 1 forward lineup, to commit his 4th foul early in the second – though that foul occured after a Buckeye defensive rebound. The loss of Gordon was clearly a problem for WCU in being able to successfully defend Sullinger down low.
The game started to get a little out of hand after a technical foul called on the Carolina coach. After Diebler made both free throws, he was able to pick up a steal on the defensive end which he took coast to coast for a nice layup. The Bucks then followed that up with an and-one from Sullinger and a three pointer from Jordan Sibert – all unanswered. The scoring run gave the Buckeyes even more breathing room against the clearly overmatched Catamounts.
The Buckeyes managed to get Lenzelle Smith and J.D. Weatherspoon into the game with 9 minutes left. They got time with Jordan Sibert, Deshaun Thomas and Dallas Lauderdale that allowed the starters time to rest and gave the bench 5 plenty of play time. While it’s not during a critical point in the game, it’s still good to let the younger players work together with a more experienced player to keep an eye on them on the floor. Later on, Sullinger replaced Lauderdale to give the Bucks an all Freshman lineup.
One last concern for the Buckeyes was that Deshaun Thomas seemed to tweek his knee on a three point jumper that went wide of the mark. He was favoring his knee after the shot, but was able to walk and play on it. It could possibly be a nagging injury for the remainder of the season. On the positive side, walk-on Eddie Days managed to get some play time in the game moments after the injury.
Jared Sullinger of the Buckeyes lead the team with 17 points on 4-8 shooting with 9-12 from the charity stripe. He also added 5 rebounds on only 2 personal fouls in the game. Diebler, Lauderdale, Buford and Thomas rounded out the double digit scoring for the Bucks with13 points for Thomas and Lauderdale, 12 points for Diebler and 11 for Buford. Mike Williams of Western Carolina led all scorers with 22 points on 8-19 shooting and was joined by Trey Sumler with 12 points and Brandon Boggs with 11 in the double digit club.
For the game, the Buckeyes shot a fantastic 52.8% (28-53) from the floor and 46.7% (7-15) from three, a substantial improvement over several of their previous games. Western Carolina responded with 40.7% shooting (24-59) from the floor and 46.7% (7-15) from three. The Catamounts out-rebounded the Bucks 36-24, but returned the favor in the turnover catagory with 18 give-aways to the Buckeye’s 5.
The Buckeyes next face Florida Gulf Coast in Value City Arena on Wednesday, December 15th at 6:30 pm Eastern Time. You’ll be able to see that game on the Big Ten Network.
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