Ohio State vs Florida State Basketball Recap

When Jon Diebler heats up, Ohio State is very hard to cool off. Florida State found out the hard way on Wednesday night at Value City Arena.

Diebler, a true sniper in the world of college basketball, lived up to his sharpshooting credentials by hitting 6-of-12 3-pointers to power the Buckeyes past the Seminoles in Columbus, Ohio. OSU's 13-point triumph officially clinched the Big Ten's first-ever win in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge by a count of six wins to five.

Everyone knows that Ohio State "point forward" Evan Turner - the team's dynamic, do-everything superstar - will get his share of points, but when a specialist such as Diebler is throwing down threes and playing off Turner's dribble penetration, the Buckeyes become infinitely more difficult to defend. This game showed why.

Turner tossed in 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting, while also collecting 13 rebounds and six assists. Such a stat line isn't terribly surprising, given Turner's place as a contender for Big Ten Player of the Year honors. But what has to make OSU Coach Thad Matta so thoroughly happy in the wake of this win was Diebler's ability to find spots on the wings and bang in bombs whenever Florida State's defense was overly concerned with Turner. Diebler is a lethal shooter, but the 6-6 junior needs to find space in order to make his catch-and-shoot magic come alive. The fact that Diebler was able to get - and make - so many open looks is a testament not only to Turner's overall dominance, but to the effectiveness of OSU's offense against coach Leonard Hamilton's Seminoles.

Another aspect of this contest that bears mentioning is the fact that the victorious Buckeyes used a seven-man rotation, with Matta calling upon just two people from his bench. While Florida State went nine deep, Ohio State kept Turner, Diebler and teammate David Lighty on the floor for a full 40 minutes. Given these playing-time allocations, one might think that FSU would have been fresher, fitter and faster, but that was hardly the case in Columbus. A Seminole squad that needed to win three games in four days to claim the Old Spice Classic over the weekend looked sluggish from the outset, while the Buckeyes - who played only one game over the previous eight days - asserted control and only built on their advantage through the game's first 31 minutes.

Leading by double digits for most of a 10-minute stretch bridging the end of the first half with the opening minutes of the second half, OSU - up 43-32 with 12 minutes remaining - decided to put its foot down. The Buckeyes reeled off 11 straight points, eight of them within a 57-second span - to amass a 54-32 lead with nine minutes remaining. After 31 minutes of hoops, one might have felt that Ohio State, with its short bench, would falter, but the opposite was true: The Seminoles sagged as this duel developed.

Ohio State will need to lengthen its bench when Big Ten play arrives, but for now, Jon Diebler - with help from Evan Turner and other endurance men - can function just fine. A 13-point trouncing of a talented ACC foe shows that the Buckeyes' season is proceeding on schedule.

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