NCAA Tournament: Moore is less for Buckeyes, as Siena guard shoots down Ohio State

Two years ago, Thad Matta and Ohio State trailed by three points in the final seconds of an NCAA Tournament game, and saw how a season can be saved by a last-second shot. Friday night in Dayton, Ohio, a coach and his school stood on the other side of the divide.
 
Siena guard Ronald Moore--who struggled mightily from the field for most of a 50-minute fistfight--nailed a tying trey with 3.5 seconds left in overtime, and then hit a winning triple with 12 seconds left in double overtime, to lead the ninth-seeded Saints to a 74-72 double-OT win over a gutted bunch of Buckeyes. What Ron Lewis did to Xavier (a program Matta once coached) in 2007, Moore did to the Buckeye Nation in University of Dayton Arena. While OSU goes home, Siena advances to meet top-seeded Louisville in a second-round Midwest Region game on Sunday afternoon.
 
The amazing thing about Moore's two titanic trifectas was the fact that the ballhandling guard hit only two of his first 13 field-goal attempts. When any player carries a 2-of-13 stat line into the final seconds of overtime in the NCAA Tournament, and other scoring options--teammates Kenny Hasbrouck and Edwin Ubiles--exist on his roster, it's hard to think that a young man would have the guts to take a season-defining shot. Moore not only possessed the courage to put the outcome of this thriller on his shoulders; far more importantly, he found the focus needed to put the ball in the bottom of the net. Buckeye fans remembered how sweet it was when Ron Lewis bailed OSU out of jail--and into the Sweet 16--two seasons ago in Lexington's Rupp Arena. Now, the Scarlet and Gray must absorb a stomach-punch setback against the champions of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

This was an even game, and a poorly-played one at that. Yes, the intensity was off the charts in this encounter, as OSU and Siena risked life and limb for every loose ball (with Siena's remarkable warrior, Ryan Rossiter, snagging 15 boards in a truly astonishing performance). However, the noble effort put forth by these clubs could not hide the fact that the Saints and Buckeyes turned their fans into basket-cases (pun not intended), given all the mistakes they made.
 
Aside from elements of basketball that stats can't adequately quantify, such as poor shot selection and deficient floor spacing, Siena and Ohio State simply couldn't hang onto the ball. Siena committed 21 turnovers while handing out just 13 assists, and OSU coughed up the pill 19 times while dropping just 15 dimes. A grand total of 40 turnovers littered the court in this game, against a combined tally of just 28 assists. Small wonder, then, that neither club could find the offensive consistency and halfcourt execution needed to put this game away. With Ohio State's long zone bothering Siena, and the Saints preventing OSU from getting second chances on the boards, the massive stack of turnovers kept the score down, and made this double-OT duel a slow crawl into the 70s.

It's true that many players, including OSU freshman B.J. Mullens, made remarkably athletic hustle plays under pressure. Yet, when a final account of this uneven affair is called for, it has to be said that both teams made too many mistakes to win. Evan Turner did his best for Matta's men, throwing down 25 points to go along with 9 boards and 8 assists, but when Moore's final three swished through the hoop with just 12 ticks left on the "2OT" clock, Turner's gallantry--including a go-ahead layup with 19 seconds left in the double overtime period--went for naught.
 
All Ohio State will remember--in addition to the hurtful threes poured in by Ronald Moore--are the turnovers that took away an even better chance of winning.
 
Such is life in the NCAA Tournament: One year's Ron Lewis escape becomes another year's Ronald Moore-produced funeral. The Buckeyes will hurt for awhile, but when they regroup and focus on next year, a young team won't be so young anymore. This experience against Siena, painful though it is, could be just the thing to make 2010 a season when NCAA Tournament games end on a winning note for these brave but beaten Buckeyes.

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