The South Carolina Gamecocks arrived on a cold wintery day in Columbus and got even more than a cold reception in the Schott. The Buckeyes ran up a 30 point lead before letting it slip slightly to the only slightly less impressive 79-57 final. Jared Sullinger was, as usual, the player of the game for the Buckeyes with yet another Double-Double with 30 points and 19 rebounds on the game. The Buckeyes showed without question that they were deserving of their #2 ranking in the domination they displayed in the game.
The Buckeyes started out the game with a clear focus on this game. While the defensive effort wasn’t as fine as it could have been, it was enough to make a couple turnovers. The defense led to some easy offense for the Buckeyes giving them an early advantage against the quick Gamecocks. Particularly impressive was Sullinger’s aggressive play down in the paint. In the first four minutes of the game he had forced South Carolina into 4 fouls, including 2 on South Carolina forward Malik Cooke. He had also managed to make it to the charity stripe five times, a continuation of his fantastic effort the last several games.
One of the important questions about this Buckeye team is the bench playing. In the last big game against Florida State, the Buckeyes did not play particularly deep into the bench. Also, against IUPUI, the starting 5 + Aaron Craft spent the majority of the second half on the court, despite taking control of the game late. The question was how quickly Matta was going to go to his bench. The answer came quickly as Craft and Thomas both came out after the first timeout – a great sight to see for the future of this program.
The defensive effort by the Buckeyes quickly improved as the game warmed up. The Gamecocks found it difficult to find a good open look at the basket and often was forced to take shots that they would rather not. Even worse for them was that the vast majority of their missed shots were rebounded by the Buckeyes, giving Carolina no second chances on offense. It makes it particularly difficult to keep up with a good shooting team when you have to hit your first shot attempt every time.
Worse for the Gamecocks was that after managed to score 6 points and keeping it close with the Buckeyes, they went on an 8 minute scoring drought. It was broken on a great three point look by Ramon Galloway. More importantly, South Carolina made an adjustment on defense to play more of a high speed press defense that seemed to surprise the Buckeyes a little. It also began to give Carolina a little momentum on the offensive end. Luckily, the Buckeyes were able to adjust to the new strategy quickly – an advantage provided by Aaron Craft’s experience at floor general.
The quick play seemed to benefit South Carolina as their offense began to take off a bit. The 14 point game the Buckeyes had managed to open up began to close and was soon down to single digits. On the offensive end, the press had begun to make the Buckeyes anxious and it was clear in the shot selection. On several occasions the Bucks rushed an ill-advised shot that was an obvious result of not being patient with the ball.
The Buckeyes adjusted, as usual. They began to take their time with the ball, and went back to having Lauderdale and Sullinger on the court to try to force the pace of the game to return to a slower more controlled game. The effort worked as the Bucks began to open the lead up again. But Sullinger’s best play came at the end of the half. With 2 seconds left, the Buckeyes inbounded the ball across the half court to Sullinger who fumbled the ball, dribbled turned and shot with a man in his face. The 1/3rd court shot (well outside 3 point range) kissed glass and dropped in giving the big man a huge three pointer to end the period. The shot gave the Bucks double the score of the Gamecocks for the half: 42-21.
For the first half, Sullinger had picked up a double double with 18 points and 10 rebounds on 6-11 shooting (including 1-1 from three). As a whole, the Bucks shot an great 45.5% (15-33) plus a not-so good 28.6% (2-7) from three. South Carolina shot even worse from the floor than the Bucks did from three hitting only 26.7% (8-30). Their three point percentage of 36.4% (4-11) was a sign that the poor shooting was a function of how tough the Buckeye’s defense was inside. Worse yet for the Gamecocks was their poor rebounding, giving up 25 to the Bucks while only picking up 14 themselves – pathetic compared to their #6 national ranking in rebounding. Carolina usually averages 43.3 rebounds per game.
After building up all the momentum at the end of the first half, the Buckeyes came out a tad flat in the second. To make things worse, the Gamecocks came out hot and playing very aggressively. Carolina quickly began to close the gap in the score, forcing turnovers all over the floor with their press defense. It was almost as if the Buckeyes had forgotten how to attack the press again.
The game started to get a little chippy. Malik Cooke and Jared Sullinger had an encounter going into a timeout where Cooke gave Sullinger a shoulder shiver that knocked Sullinger off his feet. No foul was called, much to Matta’s chagrin. Both sides were getting irritated with each other, and it was starting to come out in their play. The longer the game went on, the more emotion came out in the players.
South Carolina simply couldn’t keep up with the overall talent of the Buckeyes. The Buckeyes opened up a 24 point lead with 13 minutes left in the game and seemed to be leaving the Gamecocks in their dust. South Carolina simply did not have an answer for the big man down low as Sullinger tore them up all over the boards. Worse yet for the Gamecocks was that William Buford was a hot hand from the outside putting down 12 points of his own to force South Carolina from collapsing on the paint.
Buford wasn’t the only shooting threat for the Buckeyes in this one. Lighty and Diebler both provided some points from outside to keep South Carolina honest. But it was OSU’s defense that was really hurting the Gamecocks. Despite improving on their shooting percentage, Carolina was still unable to put the ball in the basket, and had even more trouble rebounding on the offensive end.
Desperation began to drive the Gamecocks to greater hieghts. Despite being down nearly 30 points, Carolina began to try to claw their way back into the game with a couple great shots including a tough three pointer from the corner. The effort brought them back within 24, but it left open the question of whether or not it was too little too late for the struggling Gamecocks.
The game closed out with the OSU and toUSC trading baskets up and down the court. It was apparent that the Buckeyes were just trying to close out the game as quickly as possible. Surprisingly, despite having put Jordan Sibert into the game in the middle of the second half, quite a few of the starters were still on the court holding a greater than 20 point lead with 3 minutes left in the game. Lenzelle Smith and JD Weatherspoon both finally got some time in the last 2 minutes – probably less time than they deserve from what we know.
The Buckeyes shot 42.9% (27-63) from the floor and 25% (4-16) from three for the game. The Gamecocks improved on their shooting from the first half, finishing with a 38.3% (23-60) shooting percentage and 38.1% (8-21) from three. The Buckeyes out-rebounded one of the best rebounding teams in the nation 43-31, with a 13-9 advantage on the offensive end.
Jared Sullinger lead all scorers with 30 points and 19 rebounds on 10-17 shooting for the game, including 1-2 from three point range. He was joined in the double digit category by William Buford and Jon Diebler with 12 and 11 points respectively. For South Carolina, Sam Muldrow scored 14 while Malik Cooke put in 13.
The 10-0 Buckeyes will next face North Carolina-Asheville in Value City Arena on December 21st at 8:30 PM Eastern Time. You will be able to see that game on the Big Ten Network.
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