#2 Ohio State 70, #15 Davidson 62 - NCAA Tournament (Final)

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

scout.com (free)

3/17/06

Game wrap-up by Steve Helwagen.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

scout.com (free)

3/17/06

More game photos......:osu:

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

rivals.com$

3/18/06

Game wrap-up by Adam Jardy.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ABJ

3/18/06

Ohio State notebook

Sylvester finds officiating irritating

Buckeyes senior forward gets into foul trouble, plays for just 10 minutes in win over Davidson

By Marla Ridenour

Beacon Journal sportswriter

DAYTON - It was supposed to be a special day for Matt Sylvester, playing on the same University of Dayton court where his father Mike starred from 1971-74.

But the senior forward from Cincinnati Moeller was virtually no factor in Ohio State's 70-62 victory over Davidson on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Sylvester was whistled for two fouls in a three-second span less than two minutes into the game and managed a season-low 10 minutes of action.

``The refs had it out for me. They didn't want me to be in this game for some reason,'' Sylvester said. ``I had a front-row seat for this one. It was very frustrating.

``The first one was probably a foul, I had my arms around him. The second one I stuck my hands straight up and he jumped into me,'' Sylvester said.

Sylvester, who managed just two points, two rebounds and two assists, hopes to contribute more when OSU plays Georgetown on Sunday at 2:20 p.m.

``I should be bouncing off the walls on Sunday, my legs are so fresh,'' Sylvester said. ``I hope we don't have these refs; I'll get five fouls.''

Sylvester mixed it up with Davidson sophomore Thomas Sander, an old rival from Cincinnati Elder, drawing a warning from one of the referees. Later, Davidson senior guard Matt McKillop had to be separated from OSU sophomore guard Jamar Butler.

``It was a physical game all around,'' McKillop said. ``In the last minute when we were fouling, me and Kenny Grant were trapping him, trying to get a jump ball, and they called a foul. My arms were around him, but I didn't do anything, and he pushed me away.

``Then at the end of the game he blocked my shot and said, `That's right, (bleep-bleep),' which didn't seem very classy to me.''

OSU coach Thad Matta said he will speak to his team about the style of officiating in the NCAAs.

``We did lose our composure a little bit there,'' Matta said. ``Most definitely it is a different game.''

Notebook

Matta said backup center Matt Terwilliger, who underwent an appendectomy March 8, was not medically cleared to play. ``One more day of complete non-contact,'' Matta said, referring to Friday.... With a bushy beard, Davidson senior forward Ian Johnson is a dead-ringer for Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Johnson had a game-high 26 points. ``I take it as a compliment,'' Johnson said, referring to the comparison. ``We had a tough game in the conference season that happened to be the weekend the Steelers won the Super Bowl. I'm a Steelers fan, so I thought, `If Roethlisberger can do it, why not give it a shot?' It definitely helped.''

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

DDN

3/18/06

Rough play: Buckeyes, Wildcats trade more than handshakes

By Chick Ludwig
Dayton Daily News

DAYTON | Elbows were flying the full 40 minutes of Ohio State's 70-62 victory over Davidson in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Afterward, the mud was slinging.

Buckeyes forward Matt Sylvester accused the referees of foul play, ruining his Friday afternoon. At the same time, Davidson guard Matt McKillop — speaking with emotion after his final collegiate game — ripped Ohio State guard Jamar Butler for using some in-your-face profanity.

Butler blocked a McKillop shot in the closing seconds, triggering a stare-down and a war of words.

Moments earlier, McKillop and Kenny Grant trapped Butler and a foul was called.

"My arms were around him, but I didn't do anything, and he pushed me away," McKillop said. "The ref kind of separated the two of us. I didn't say anything. Then, at the end of the game, he blocked my shot and said, 'That's right, (expletive),' which didn't seem very classy to me."

Butler vehemently denied McKillop's claim.

"I blocked his shot at the end," Butler said. "I think he got a little frustrated. He said I was a 2-seed. So I said, 'Thanks, I appreciate it.' It was a tough game. It's an NCAA environment and both teams wanted to win. It just got a little bit physical out there."

It got so physical that referee Ed Corbett summoned Sylvester and Davidson's Thomas Sander for a mid-court meeting with 18:11 to go. The two had been pushing, shoving and "chesting-up."

Sylvester, a senior, and Sander, a sophomore, are Cincinnatians who played at Moeller and Elder high schools, respectively, in the Greater Catholic League.

Corbett's message? "I don't know because I wasn't listening at all," Sylvester said.

"The crowd was loud, and it was hard to hear," Sander added. "Whatever he said, I wasn't going to listen to him, anyway."

Sylvester, who said he didn't know Sander in high school, was not happy with referees Corbett, Larry Spaulding and Ray Perone after being held to 2 points with three fouls in 10 minutes.

"The refs had it out for me," Sylvester said. "That's a cliche, but I believe it. They did not want me in that game. I feel we had a bad whistle from the start. It's hard to get in the flow when things like that are going on."

Sander, who had 4 points and 7 rebounds in 25 minutes, certainly remembers Sylvester.

"It was like back in the old days — Moeller-Elder. It's the GCL," Sander said. "It was fun to come back here and play in front of everybody, and have my parents (Tom and Jane) at the game. ... I was telling the guys, 'I get to hear Hang on Sloopy.' "

Contact Chick Ludwig at 225-2253.

 

[daddyphatsacs]

Sylvester needs to shut the hell up and play hoops on Sunday. It was almost embarassing to see him whining over every call yesterday. Let your actions speak for themselves. Your going to have games where the calls aren't going on your favor, yesterday was a prime example.

Great win yesterday, in the tournament your goal is to live to fight another day. It wasn't pretty, but then again I think Iowa and Kansas would love to be in our spot today. I still think this team can get hot, especially if Twig comes back.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

A few more pics from the game.....

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

3/18/06

OSU shaken and stirred

At half, Matta jolts players, who fight off feisty Davidson

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

NEAL C . LAURON | DISPATCH Ron Lewis, who rallied Ohio State in the second half with two deep threes, puts up a shot over Ian Johnson of Davidson.

DAYTON — On a Richter scale of one to 10, coach Thad Matta’s emotional state at halftime yesterday rated . . .

"Probably a 13," J.J. Sullinger said.
Lucky 13 for the Buckeyes.

Something seismic was required to rouse the Ohio State men’s basketball team. The Buckeyes were playing their first NCAA Tournament game in four years — the first for any of them except Terence Dials — and were as placid as Mirror Lake.

They played without purpose on offense, content to lob threes no matter how many they missed. Dials forced shots despite being doubleand triple-teamed and having poor angles to the glass.

Consequently, they allowed 15 thseeded Davidson to have hope.

"We had to regroup at halftime," Dials said, "and we responded like the No. 2 seed that we are."

Ron Lewis started the response outside and Dials finished it inside. They scored all of Ohio State’s points in a 17-7 run that turned the tide of a close game and propelled the Buckeyes to a 70-62 victory in University of Dayton Arena.

Lewis had nine points and Dials eight in the run and they finished with 19 apiece. Dials had 13 rebounds, as did Sullinger, who also had 13 points as the Buckeyes (26-5) moved into a second-round matchup Sunday against seventhseeded Georgetown (22-9).

Forward Ian Johnson led Davidson (20-11) with 26 points and 10 rebounds.

"I didn’t do a very good job of getting these guys ready to go, to understand just what it took," Matta said. "We were slow to balls. We were slow to rebounds. The last four points we gave up in the first half were tap-backins. The challenge at halftime was to pick up our intensity."

The Buckeyes raised it to the point that they had five fouls in the first 4:40 and Je’Kel Foster and Matt Sylvester on the bench with three apiece.

Unfortunately for Davidson, that brought in Lewis, who wasted no time impacting the game. His two deep threes a minute apart started the 17-7 run that turned a 35-32 deficit into a 49-42 lead for the Buckeyes.

"(They) were really daggers to us," Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. "It gave them confidence, and in giving them confidence it all of a sudden made the (pro-OSU) crowd a factor."

Lewis’ second three gave Ohio State a 38-35 lead, its first since midway through the first half. Dials scored the Buckeyes’ next eight points, the final two on offensive rebounds. He had nine rebounds in the second half, four on offense.

"The first half they were double- and triple-teaming me. I couldn’t get my shot off real cleanly," Dials said. "I just tried to manufacture some points other ways. I had to hit the offensive glass."

Ohio State, which has not shot well from three-point range for 10 games, attempted 14 treys in the first half, made one and shot 29.7 percent overall from the field.

In the second half, by attacking the Davidson defense more off the dribble, the Buckeyes attempted only eight threes, made four and shot 53.6 percent overall. They also shot 18 free throws in the second half vs. five in the first.

"That was something we felt we could do, get inside of them," Matta said. "We probably settled for (threes) a little too much in the first half. I hope it gives us a little bit more of (a mind-set of) getting inside and finishing closer to the basket."

Now is not the time of the season to lack aggression.

"This is tournament time. This is what people live for. This is where dreams come true," Sullinger said. "We definitely have to come out at the beginning of the game on Sunday with a lot more than we had today."
[email protected]

Saturday, March 18, 2006

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

3/18/06

Motto of ‘refuse to lose’ rallies Buckeyes at halftime

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

NEAL C . LAURON | DISPATCH Terence Dials, who had 19 points and 13 rebounds in Ohio State’s 70-62 win, is fouled by Jason Morton of Davidson.


DAYTON — Ohio State flirted yesterday with becoming the answer to an NCAA Tournament trivia question: Who was only the fifth No. 2 seed to get upset by a No. 15 in the 22 years of the expanded bracket?

But that would have meant a trivial end to an otherwise magical season for the Buckeyes. More to the point, a loss would have meant a bitter end for the seniors, whose motto became "refuse to lose." And trailing 29-25 at the half to Davidson in UD Arena, losing was a real possibility for the Big Ten regular-season champions.

"That was something we talked about; we said we don’t want this to be the last time this team is together," senior forward J.J. Sullinger said. "We definitely didn’t want to go out in the first round.

"This being my first NCAA Tournament, I want to play as long as I can. So it was definitely a ‘refuse to lose’ mentality."

The Buckeyes rallied to beat the Wildcats 70-62. More than that, with three-point shots again not falling with any consistency, they saddled up their Big Ten Player of Year, senior center Terence Dials, and rode him into the second round Sunday against Georgetown.

Dials, with just six points in the first half and frustrated by Davidson’s double- and sometimes triple-teams underneath, finished with a team-high-tying 19. His 13 rebounds tied for the game high with Sullinger, who also had 13 points.

The effort was all about the motto, Dials said.

"At this point in the year, it is refuse to lose or you go home," he said.

"That was basically our mind-set the second half. We don’t want to go home."

Toward that end, Dials should be applauded, Matt Terwilliger said. The sophomore usually would be Dials’ backup, but an appendectomy 10 days ago kept him on the bench. Dials played all but about 20 seconds yesterday.

"That just shows how tough he really is," Terwilliger said. "He struggled the first half and still came out in the second half and dominated the paint."

Senior forward Matt Sylvester wished he could have been more a part of the second-half surge, but two fouls at the beginning of the game followed by a call early in the second "meant I was watching from the bench more than anything else." He said that just gave him a front-row seat for the rally put on by Dials and Co.

"They picked up on the rebounding, focused in on the defensive end, and it really helped pull (us) through," Sylvester said. "Then Ron Lewis came in, hit some shots and played some great defense."

Even though the game was ugly from the beginning, the end result was all that mattered, Sullinger said.

"The best words in college basketball are Ohio State advances," Sullinger said. "Not every game is going to be pretty, man, especially in the NCAA Tournament.

"A lot of times you see a lot of teams not doing exactly what they want to do. Luckily for us, we can go out there and do it again come Sunday."

[email protected]

 

[holybuckeye33]

For anybody who was at work yesterday and whose cbs online feed was blacked out, they now have the full game archived on their website.

 

[jwinslow]

I love that pic

 

[SanAntonioBuck]

The first half is about what I expected. Settling for the 3. Lackluster passing. Dials proving himself to be probably the most overrated big 10 MVP in recent memory. You should be able to ride your MVP over a team like Davidson.We may yet win. But only to be embarrassed by Georgetown or Northern Iowa. We'd lose by 25 to Florida.When Oden is here next year, we will be even more impressed that Matta was somehow able to win the big 10 regular season title with such marginal talent.

Never give up on the Buckeyes!