Buckeyes Impressive in Important Conference Win

Tied atop the Big Ten Conference, the 13 th ranked Ohio State Buckeyes and the Illinois Illini met at Assembly Hall Sunday afternoon with each team riding five-game winning streaks.

With that in mind, the game expected to be a hard-fought battle.

This was not the case as the Buckeyes cruised on their way to an impressive 72-53 victory while dominating at both ends of the floor.

OSU held the Illini to just 34.3 percent shooting (23-67) from the field including a putrid 16.7 percent (4-24) from beyond-the-arc.

The Buckeyes, on the other hand, shot a tremendous 53 percent (26-49) from the floor as well as a scorching 50 percent (11-22) from downtown.

Six of those triples came from Jon Diebler who led the Buckeyes in scoring 18 points on 6-of-11 from 3-point range.

David Lighty added 17 points and Evan Turner once again flirted with a triple-double tallying 16 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.

Illinois did not have one player score in double figures as Demetri McCamey led the Illini with nine points to go along with nine assists.

The Illini took an early 4-3 lead but then the Buckeyes would go on an 18-6 run to jump out to a 21-10 lead inside of 11 minutes remaining in the first half. The early Illini lead would be their last of the game.

Ohio State would step up their zone defense forcing long misses which seemed to find the hands of Evan Tuner every time. Turner would then convert the long rebounds into quick transition baskets including a monster flush from Lighty on a deep outlet pass from Turner as the Buckeyes lead 25-12 halfway through the opening 20 minutes.

Defensively, Buckeye Head Coach Thad Matta would continue to frustrate the Illini offense by switching between zone and man-to-man defenses. At the other end, Ohio State created open looks with superior ball movement.

Lighty knocked down a triple to put the Bucks up by 20 points as the Illini faithful began to boo. The half would commence with Ohio State leading 36-20.

In the early stages of the second half, Illinois seemed to make some halftime adjustments attempting to get inside of the Ohio State zone. Initially, it would prove to work as the Illini crept within 12 points but it was then Ohio State would take over the game for good.

Lighty would knock down back-to-back hoops to push the lead back up to 55-38. Then, on the next possession, a Lighty steal lead to a breakaway dunk by Turner as they lead ballooned back to 19 points inside of 10 minutes to go.

Bench reserve Jeremie Simmons provided the dagger as he stroked a 3-pointer from the corner as Illinois called a timeout trailing 60-38.

The victory marks the ninth straight conference win for the Buckeyes who approve 20-6 overall and 10-3 in the conference. The 20 th victory also makes it 10 straight seasons with 20 or more wins under Thad Matt.

Perhaps the toughest week of the season awaits the Buckeyes as they host Purdue on Wednesday and travel to Michigan State on Sunday.

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