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March 11, 2016NIT from bust: Buckeyes get clobbered by Michigan State in B1G Quarterfinals
March 13, 2016If Ohio State wants to make the NCAA Tournament, they must get a couple victories in the Big Ten Tournament this week. Thursday night, their first win of this year’s tournament came against No. 10 seed Penn State.
As they did for the majority of the regular season, Ohio State struggled in the first half. Holding a 18-16 lead midway through the opening 20 minutes, the Nittany Lions went on a 12-2 run to take the lead. The Buckeyes, who trailed 34-37 at half, finally woke up in the second half. Penn State scored the first basket, but then the scarlet and gray proceeded to score the next 14 points and take a 9-point lead with more than 16 minutes left in the game.
Forward Marc Loving commented on what the Bucks did differently to take the lead early in the second half.
“Penn State was working a lot of tough shots especially in the first half. They were like 7-for-12. They were really hot. In the second half we wanted to make them uncomfortable and make them take as a tough shot as possible. They still got some to go in, but I felt like we did pretty good job of that.”
While Penn State made the game close during many occasions, the scarlet and gray ended up winning the game, 79-75, to advance to the tournament’s quarterfinals Friday night.
Marc Loving, who had a game-high 24 points to go along with four rebounds, two assists, one steal, and two blocks, finished with at least 20 points for the third consecutive game. He made an impressive 13 of 15 free throws as well.
Coach Matta’s shooting school. We do shooting school every day in practice. So just being able to knock down shots from good position JaQuan -Lyle] and A.J. [Harris] put me in.”
To go along with Loving, three other Buckeyes scored in double figures: JaQuan Lyle (22 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, three steals, one block), Keita Bates-Diop (14 points, six rebounds, one assist), and Trevor Thompson (10 points, six rebounds, two steals, one block).
Ohio State’s defense played much better this go-round, especially in the second half. While Penn State shot 51 percent in the first half, the Nittany Lions shot just 35 percent in the final 20 minutes.
The win over Penn State Thursday night gave the seventh-seeded Buckeyes their 20th win of the season. Head coach Thad Matta’s Bucks have won at least 20 games in 12 consecutive seasons while Matta has been at the helm.
Still needing at least one more signature win in order to clinch their spot in the NCAA Tournament field of 68, the Buckeyes now play No. 2 seed and the second-best team in the country (according to rankings) Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. ET on Friday night against the Spartans, a team that the scarlet and gray is 0-2 during the season and lost by an average of 17 points. Matta made sure to point out how good of a team Sparty is during post-game Thursday night.
“They are a great team. You know, they just — they pose so many problems. But with that said, as I told these guys, we have to play better than we played the first two games. If they shoot 68 percent or whatever they shot against us five days ago, we’re probably in trouble. So we know the first thing is we’re going to have to defend and do a great job doing that. And we’re going to have to play harder and we’re going to have to play smarter, and anything can happen now.”