Buckeyes Methodical in Mashing Minnesota

Each game it seems as though the 24 th ranked Ohio State Buckeyes come closer to cementing themselves a spot in the NCAA tournament. Sunday afternoon’s game against the visiting Minnesota Golden Gophers would be no different.

Ohio State improved to 13-0 at home with an easy 85-63 victory over Minnesota on their way to notching their fifth straight conference win.

The Buckeyes built their lead not through dominating runs but rather through a methodical attack at both ends of the floor. Slowly pulling away, OSU’s patience on offense and points off their trapping defense which forced 17 Golden Gopher turnovers fueling 24 Buckeye points, allowed them to coast to victory.

William Buford played perhaps his best game in a Buckeye uniform leading his team with a career-high 26 points to go along with five rebounds and five assists.

"He's a tough kid and he played extremely hard,” commented Head Coach Thad Matta regarding Buford’s game. “For a guy who just had an emergency root canal last Tuesday, he played pretty well."

"It was a fun game,” Buford added. “The easy transition made for lots of open looks and lots of alleys.”

Those easy looks resulted in 63 percent field-goal shooting performance for OSU against a Minnesota defense which came in leading the conference by limiting opponents to just 38.6 percent from the field.

"We were focused offensively and took good shots,” added Matt. “Everything we did on offense started with ball movement, and we had a lot of success moving it around the perimeter.”

Matta continued, “We also were excellent with our screening. Minnesota throws a lot of different looks at you defensively, and I thought we handled them well."

Evan Turner and Jon Diebler contributed 19 points apiece and David Lighty rounded out the double digit scorers for Ohio State with 11 points.

Rodney Williams led the Golden Gophers in scoring 13 points off the bench.

Minnesota’s top leading scorers Lawrence Westbrook and Blake Hoffarber were held in check for most of the game scoring just 17 points combined.

"We just played normal defense,” Tuner explained. “I don't think we specifically focused on anyone. We put a lot of pressure on the ball. It was a team effort.”

With the victory, Ohio State improves to 16-6 overall including 6-3 in the Big Ten while Minnesota falls to 4-5 in the conference and 13-8 overall.

OSU aims to keep on rolling this Wednesday as the Penn State Nittany Lions stroll into Columbus for what expects to be a hard fought game between conference rivals.

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