Buckeyes Take Conference Showdown

After falling to Purdue at home this week, the 9 th ranked Ohio State Buckeyes faced another tough conference matchup as they traveled to take on the 11 th ranked Michigan State Spartans on Sunday.

With both teams chasing Purdue for the top stop in the Big Ten, the Buckeyes came up with a clutch 74-67 victory on the road. The Buckeye victory puts both them and the Spartans a half-game behind Purdue.

Ohio State was led by a gutty performance from Evan Tuner who poured in a team-high 20 points to go along with 10 rebounds and six assists despite missing Saturday’s practice with cold and flulike symptoms.

"He did a tremendous job of battling through it," Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said of his star.

Turner was not the only Buckeye to have a solid game as the entire starting lineup pitched in accounting for 70 of the team’s 74 points.

William Buford tallied a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds as David Lighty and Dallas Lauderdale flirted with double-doubles themselves. Lighty contributed 13 points and nine boards and Lauderdale posted eight points and eight rebounds.

Jon Diebler was the fourth Ohio State starter in double figures scoring 12 points on four 3-pointers.

Michigan State was led by Durrell Summers who bucketed 16 points as reigning Big Ten Player of the Year, Kalin Lucas, was held to just eight points on 3-of-13 shooting from the field.

The Spartans looked to be in control early as they jumped out to a 12-8 lead behind a ruckus home crowd.

That crowd would soon have the air taken out of them as Ohio State would go on a 15-0 run over a seven minute span, capped off by a Diebler triple to give the Buckeyes a 23-12 lead with 8:19 to go in the half.

Much of the run was supplied by Burford and Lauderdale with Turner struggling to find his legs on his shot.

“It showed we can score," Turner said of his teammates carrying the load in the first half. "It's not just me. It's all the guys. They made a lot of good plays."

The offense wasn’t the only thing working for OSU. Their defense forced nine Spartan turnovers and held Michigan State to just 9-of-27 shots as the Buckeyes took a 39-26 lead into the half.

As expected, Spartan head coach Tom Izzo would light a fire under his team at the half and his squad would make a run in the final 20 minutes.

The Spartans would continue to chip away at the Buckeye lead getting within seven points on several occasions.

A pair of free-throws from Buford put Ohio State ahead 61-55 with 5:51 remaining. It was then that Summers would score seven straight points for the Spartans to give Michigan State a 62-61 lead, their first lead since early in the game.

Ohio State quickly regained the lead back and Diebler provided the eventual dagger as he drained a 3-pointer on a drive and dish by Turner to give OSU a 68-62 advantage with just 1:38 to go.

The Buckeyes would win the free-throw battle down the stretch as they closed out their 10 th win in their last 11 conference games.

Another conference game awaits Ohio State this coming Wednesday as they travel to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions.

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