Sweet Sixteen Sendoff

A Brian Williams tip-in with 32 seconds left sent the Tennessee Volunteers to the Elite Eight and Ohio State home with a 76-73 loss in St. Louis’ Sweet 16 round Friday night. Bruce Pearl’s buried the Buckeyes behind Wayne Chism’s 22 points, 18 in the second half. Chism was 9-of-16 from the field, with 11 rebounds as Tennessee tallied 80% from the line. Evan Turner scored 21 of Ohio State’s 31 points in the second half in the Midwest regional semifinal. The number two seeded Buckeyes came up short on offense after leading 42-39 at the half. OSU played the final 13 minutes of the first half with David Lighty. The junior Buckeye logged 26 minutes total after being whistled for two touch fouls early. Lighty finished with 9 points and five assists.
The Buckeyes lost the lead after Lighty’s departure in the first half. His replacement, Jeremie Simmons notched a pair of treys within less than two minutes of each other off the thin Buckeyes bench. Simmons matched Lighty’s nine points in 14 minutes on the hardwood. He made three 3-pointers last night after knotting four all year long for the Bucks. William Buford recorded nine points in the game’s first four minutes to spot OSU a 13-7 advantage early on. The momentum quickly swung the Volunteers’ way. Tennessee responded with buckets from a variety of players the rest of the way. Sporadic scoring highlighted the ending minutes of the first half. Vols’ guard, Cameron Tatum, accounted for half of the points during a 10-0 Tennessee run. The dangerous Buckeyes suddenly did not seem so contested. Senior Bobby Maze deposited a layup to make it a 17-13 Tennessee deficit before Simmons responded by dropping one in from downtown. Tennessee’s Josh Bone and the Buckeyes’ John Diebler traded 3-pointers with four minutes before the break to even the score at 30. It was the only basket Diebler hit the entire night.
Ohio State led by six with just over 17 minutes remaining in the contest, but gradually gave way at Edward Jones Dome to the relentless sixth seeded Volunteers. Turner proved to be the only one who could score for Ohio State. He overcame a sloppy ball-handling first half in which he committed six turnovers to press the Vols and secure the ball following the intermission. After contributing just three baskets in the first half, the player of the year candidate surpassed that output in the second half’s first five minutes. The Buckeyes took a 59-56 edge with less than eight minutes in the game. Chism’s back-to-back jumpers cut the margin to one point. Scotty Hopson and J.P. Prince gave the Vols their first lead since late in the first half on consecutive connections from the rainbow. Tennessee pulled out the back-and-forth tussle in the paint, with Chism carrying the offense as the Bucks’ defense hit a lull. Thad Matta’s Buckeyes trailed 68-63 with four minutes but rallied to retake the lead twice. Lighty and Turner were successful from the arc in lifting OSU to a one-point advantage with 41 seconds left. Williams’ rebound gave the Volunteers the lead for good. Turner fouled Maze with 12 ticks before a timeout. Maze made both free throws to send the Big 10 champions home. Tennessee moves on to the Elite Eight, where they face another Big 10 team, Michigan State. Prince converted 6-of-13 on a 14 point night and Maze added 10 for the 28-8 Tennessee. The Buckeyes were hurt by their lack of depth in this enormous matchup of elite programs. OSU opened the game with more energy but the intensity subsided as the tired Buckeyes were worn down by a talented Tennessee team.
Parting Points: I’m still going with Duke to make the championship game. They topped Purdue convincingly last night.
Song of the day- “Tears on my pillow”- Little Anthony and the Imperials