It wasn’t much of a game today at Value City Arena as the #2 ranked Buckeyes beat the UT-Pan American Broncs 64-35 for Thad Matta’s 300th victory overall, and his 100th victory over an unranked opponent in Value City Arena. It was overall a slow and plodding game for both sides, with little to get excited about during the course; it very nearly made you wonder if you were really watching the number two team in the nation at all. Evan Ravenel and Deshaun Thomas each scored 11 points for the Buckeyes in replacing Jared Sullinger for the game. Jared Maree of UTPA led all scorers with 13 points and 3 rebounds.
In place of the injured Jared Sullinger, the Buckeyes started Evan Ravenel, the standard backup at the five. Not surprisingly, the Buckeyes started out very sluggishly on the offensive end despite playing aggressive defense. Few shoots were falling, including an easy fast-break layup for Aaron Craft, and may have been an indication of some letdown after the big Duke win. The Bucks kept plugging away, running their standard offense, and Deshaun Thomas managed to do enough early on to get OSU going.
Amazingly, Evan Ravenel was taken out inside the first 4 minutes and replaced with Amir Williams. Matta might have done this to try to get a spark for the team on offense, or to get Amir Williams some more valuable minutes while a game was still “in doubt”. Either way, it was nice to see the young guy get plenty of good minutes early in a basketball game.
The Broncs had no end of difficulty with the Ohio State defense. The Bucks forced them into shot clock violations and extremely poor shots throughout the first half. The only points UTPA managed to score were on a pair of freethrows until more than 9 minutes in the game when they finally hit a three pointer from the left side. The only thing keeping the game from being a complete rout was the Buckeyes inability to drop a field-goal. Part of UTPA’s issues were the fact that they absolutely refused to attack the lane in any meaningful way, settling for long-range jump shots all game. It’s not hard to imagine what Sullinger could have done to this team today and it’s disappointing that we didn’t get a chance to see it.
Ohio State slowly built their lead through the bulk of the first half. Key to that was the play of Deshaun Thomas, Jordan Sibert, and Shannon Scott. Of all the Buckeyes on the court those three were the only ones to be able to consistently put the ball in the bucket. Also notable was Evan Ravenel’s play inside in place of Sullinger. Ravenel did a great job of being imposing enough to scare UTPA out of the lane and limit them to only one basket in the paint for the entire half. The Buckeyes went into the break holding a 17 point lead based more on their defensive work, holding UTPA to only 14 points for the half, than their offensive effort.
Coming out of the half, the Buckeyes displayed much more effort on both ends of the court and were rewarded with a lead extending run through the first ten minutes of the period. It was a slow and methodical attack that was similar to a boa constrictor. The end was a certainty, the job just needed to be done.
Interestingly, William Buford was ice cold today, but showed some promise for his decision making. Against Kentucky, Buford tried to warm himself up by shooting, eventually going 2-16 from the floor. Today, Buford helped his teammates out instead, and only took shots that he simply couldn’t pass up. It was a nice change in his thinking that I hope continues going forward from here.
Plenty of young guns got to see the court for the Buckeyes today. Shannon Scott got plenty of valuable minutes along with Amir Williams and Jordan Sibert. Sam Thompson also saw decent playing time, and Weatherspoon managed to see the court in the last half of the second period. The amount of time they got today was well deserved and they made the most of it, combining for 31 total points for the game. If you’re wondering about Trey McDonald, he finally managed to see the court with just under 5 minutes remaining in the game.
The Buckeyes shot 39.7% (25-63) from the floor, and a 23.1% (3-13) from beyond the arc in one of the poorest shooting days in the Thad Matta era. Thankfully, UTPA was not much better hitting 32.5% (13-40) and 33.3% (6-18) respectively. The Bucks also won the rebounding battle 44-24, and the turnover battle 8-21.
The Buckeyes next face the Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence for their first away game of the season. That game will be played on Saturday, December 10th at 3:15 pm, and you’ll be able to see it on ESPN.
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