Buckeyes Battle, Avoid Upset

Ohio State Head Coach Thad Matta prior to Wednesday night’s game against the Iowa Hawkeyes was quoted as saying that out of all the places his 24 th ranked Buckeyes have been this season, Iowa City would prove to be one of the most challenging.

Matta’s foreshadowing was right on point as the Buckeyes clawed their way to a 65-57 victory after trailing for much of the game. The win gives OSU their fourth straight conference victory and extended Iowa’s losing streak against Top 25 teams to 15 games.

David Lighty stepped up for the Buckeyes leading a second half charge which saw Ohio State outscore the Hawkeyes 20-7 down the stretch. Lighty led the Buckeyes and all scorers with 20 points including 18 in the second half.

OSU leading scorer Evan Turner once again filled up the stat sheet contributing 16 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and three steals despite only two points on 1-of-3 shooting in the first half. Turner closed out the game by scoring half of his points in the final minute.

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.

The Hawkeyes closed out the half strong on their way to a 25-20 lead at intermission. In the half, Iowa held Ohio State to no free-throws (0-3) or three-point field goals (0-7) while surrounding just seven combined points to Turner and Buford. Lauderdale kept the Buckeyes close with his eight points on a perfect 4-for-4 shooting from the field.

For most of the second half, both teams battled back and forth for control of the game and Iowa appeared to have won that battle when they took a 45-38 lead with 8:18 to go.

It was then that Lighty, Turner and the Buckeyes took over. During a three minute span down the stretch, Lighty scored eight of his team’s next 10 points to give the Buckeyes their first lead since early in first half at 52-50 with inside of three minutes remaining.

The Buckeyes (15-6, 5-3) would not give up the lead again as they avoided the potential upset.

OSU seeks their fifth straight conference win as they travel back to Columbus to square off against the Minnesota Golden Gophers this coming Sunday.

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