Supporting Cast Leads Buckeyes to Easy Victory

Perhaps the biggest weakness for the 13 th ranked Ohio State Buckeyes this season has been their lack of depth. Head Coach Thad Matta sticks to a strict eight-man rotation, with his starting five logging nearly all of those minutes.

The Buckeyes supporting cast answered any concerns about a lack of depth on Wednesday night as they led the visiting Ohio State to a dominating 69-52 victory against the Indiana Hoosiers despite limited minutes from their star, Evan Turner.

Turner spent the final 17:25 of the first half on the bench after drawing his second foul early on. His absence would prove to not affect the outcome as William Buford, Dallas Lauderdale, and Kyle Madsen would step up in Turner’s place.

Buford led OSU with 21 points while Lauderdale and Madsen each poured in career-highs with 14 and 11 points, respectively.

William Buford and Dallas Lauderdale were the other Buckeye double digit scorers with 11 and 10 points respectively.

Eric May led Iowa with 18 points, twice his season average (8.9 ppg), but no other Hawkeye scored in double figures.

From the outset of the game you could tell it would be a barnburner, and not just because the game was hosted in Iowa.

The young, pesky Hawkeyes came out aggressive early with a strong defensive attack against Turner and Buford. Even with OSU’s top two leader scorers being held in check, a Jon Diebler layup gave the Bucks a 14-9 lead with 8:06 remaining in the half.

Iowa proceeded to take control of the game going on a 9-0 run as they held OSU without a field goal for nearly four minutes. The run was snapped as Lauderdale and Buford converted on back-to-back buckets to tie the ballgame at 18 inside of three minutes.

With the victory, OSU has won 15 of its last 17 games vs. unranked teams and has won eight straight against Big Ten opponents.

The Big Ten is now in a three way tie atop the standings as the Buckeyes join Michigan State and Illinois with a 9-3 conference record.

The tie sets up a huge matchup on Sunday as the Buckeyes (19-6) travel to Champaign, Illinois to take on the Illini for the first time this season.

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