Buckeye Blowout

It looked like Valentine’s Day in Champaign, Illinois Sunday afternoon as the Fighting Illini hosted 13th ranked Ohio State. Both teams were clad in red and white. The Big Ten teams showed little love for each other, however. It was Ohio State popping the campaign in Champaign, sticking a dagger in the Illini like cupid with an arrow. The Buckeyes blew out the home team 72-53. It was the worst lost suffered at Assembly Hall in 34 years. Ohio State held on the first place and showed they mean business in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes dominated Illinois from the get-go. They went on to rout their 17-9 opponents to pull into a first place tie with Michigan State. It was the ninth straight win for the smug and superior Buckeyes.
The scarlet and gray shooting was hot and consistent throughout the game. The Illini were coming off back-to-back victories over top 15 teams but never mounted a rally against Ohio State. OSU trailed by one point in the first period before going on an 18-6 run. The Buckeyes never looked back. Illinois trailed by 20 points at the half. OSU’s Jon Diebler led the way with 18 points. David Lighty dropped in 17 and Evan Turner finished with 16. Turner snagged 11 defensive rebounds and 8 assists in the win. The Buckeyes shot 53% for the game and frustrated Illinois with a stingy zone defense. The Buckeyes were 11-for-22 from 3-point range. Diebler accounted for six of his team’s long shots. The Illini managed just 16% from the arc.
Thad Matta’s Ohio State offense was clicking on all cylinders and looked very much in form. Illinois got as close as 13 points in the early minutes of the second half, but Turner and Diebler kept up their penetration and shooting prowess to rebuild the lead to 17 over a four minute span. The 6’7” Turner logged six turnovers at point guard. The befuddled home team couldn’t get anything going offensively and never even made a game of it Sunday. The Illini lost for the first time in six tries. Demetri McCamey scored a ghastly nine points in the loss, nearly seven short of his season average. The Illinois guard came into Sunday with the title of Big Ten co-player of the week (along with OSU’s Turner) You can guarantee he won’t be sharing anything close to that title this week. McCamey’s two rebounds and nine assists were only slightly better than his 0-for-4 from downtown. Forward, Mike Davis, was one of three Illini juniors to tally eight points. Bill Cole and Mike Tisdale also contributed eight as their team fell to 20-6 OSU. Cole and Tisdale put up zeros in the assist column. The Illini came into the contest with the conference’s best field goal percentage defense. They sure didn’t appear to be the best in anything Sunday afternoon. Illinois was unable to keep pace with OSU predominately in the zone. The Illini guards were 0-for-14 from the field until freshman, D.J. Richardson’s layup in the final period. The Buckeyes’ pugnacious accuracy provided the lopsided win over Bruce Weber’s Illini. Illinois has some impressive wins at Assembly Hall this season, but Sunday was just a Valentine’s Day massacre they would like to soon forget.

Parting Points: Big Sunday in sports- NBA All-Star game, Daytona 500 and the Olympics heating up. But the headlines are still dominated by college basketball on the heels of March Madness. Number two Syracuse was crushed by Louisville again and Rutgers stunned Georgetown.