OHIO STATE 107 VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE 69
Off to a running start
Buckeyes get into footrace with Keydets before blowing them away in second half
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Ohio State?s Daequan Cook, right, leaves VMI?s Adam Lonon with nowhere to go. Cook led the Buckeyes in scoring with 22 points.
That adage about kids having to learn to walk before they run is true.
Unfortunately for the newborn Ohio State men?s basketball team, it had no choice but to run ? and run, and run some more ? last night in the first Division I college game for about half the roster.
Either that or get lapped by spunky Virginia Military Institute, which had scored 272 points in two exhibition wins.
It was pretty at times. It wasn?t pretty at times. But it was, at the end, a 107-69 victory for the Buckeyes in Value City Arena in the first round of the Black Coaches Association Classic.
It was the most points scored by Ohio State in nine seasons in Value City Arena and its most in a game since a 121-96 win over George Mason in St. John Arena on Jan. 8, 1995.
"I don?t know if I?ve coached in a game like that where, offensively, you?re just basically making plays the entire game," said coach Thad Matta, looking at a box score that showed the teams combining for 159 shots from the field and 50 turnovers.
"I thought our guys did a pretty good job. We got careless with the ball. . . . But defensively, in the second half, our guys locked down and we did a much better job. We were able to go from 43 (points allowed in the first half) to 26 points (in the second). That was probably the biggest difference right there."
Ohio State (1-0) advanced to play Loyola (Ill.) in a BCA Classic semifinal at 8 tonight. Loyola (1-0) defeated Princeton 68-57.
Kent State and IUPUI will meet in the other semifinal at 2 p.m. Kent State defeated South Dakota State 105-50 and IUPUI toppled Alabama A &M 86-47.
The consolation semifinals will match Alabama A &M and South Dakota State at noon and Princeton and VMI at 5:30 p.m.
Daequan Cook came off the bench to lead five double-figure scorers for Ohio State with 22 points, the most by a true freshman in his Ohio State debut. He also had nine rebounds.
"I let the game come to me," Cook said. "Me and coach Matta had a conversation about how I was rushing a lot of my shots and drawing a lot of (charging fouls). What he talked to me about today was just letting the game come to me and playing my game, and that?s what I did."
Jamar Butler had 18 points, Ivan Harris 17, Ron Lewis 15 and David Lighty 11. Othello Hunter had 13 rebounds and Mike Conley Jr. 10 assists and five steals.
Reggie Williams and Fred Robinson led VMI with 16 points apiece.
"They are really, really talented. They?re as advertised," VMI coach Duggar Baucom said of the Buckeyes.
Ohio State, which led 51-46 with 19 minutes to play after an entertaining if sometimes exasperating first half, put the game away with a solid six-plus minutes during which they outscored the Keydets 21-8.
Until then, the Buckeyes had been breathtaking on offense at times with their athleticism, victimizing VMI?s ball pressure by passing or dribbling through it and finding open finishers for layups or alley-oop dunks.
Problem was, the pace of the game caused them to be loose and lax on both ends. They finished with 26 turnovers and, as in their two exhibition games, were getting beaten on the boards by an inferior opponent.
"We went away from our system defensively. We weren?t very sound," Matta said.
The Buckeyes tied up the loose ends in the second half. They outrebounded VMI 28-13 to finish with a 10-board edge, held the Keydets to nine field goals and forced 13 turnovers.
"I thought their defense was much better in the second half," Baucom said. "Every shot was contested, they were bodying up. They started playing that Big Ten basketball."
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