Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Open Season with
74-53 Win Over Towson
By John Porentas
Ohio State (1-0) got the season off on a winning note
with a 74-53 win over Towson (0-1) in the first round of the Guardians
Classic. The Buckeyes will play Robert Morris tomorrow night in the
final of the Columbus regional of the tournament. The winner of that
game will advance to the tournament final four in Kansas City.
Buckeye center Terence Dials led all scorers with 23
points in the game. Dials was eight-of-11 from the field and seven-of-11
from the free throw line. J. J. Sullinger and Brandon Fuss-Cheatham
also reached double figures in scoring for the Buckeyes, each with
12 points. Towson's Mike Green was the lone double figure scorer
for the Tigers with 10 points.
"We tried to make sure Stockman didn't get many
open looks, because he's very dangerous. Sullinger is very effective
on the offensive end," said first-year Towson Head Coach Pat
Kennedy.
"He (Sullinger) makes a lot of the short range
jump shots," said Kennedy.
"We weren't sure how good Dials was," said
Kennedy of OSU's leading scorer.
"We watched tape on him and we did not double team
him early on. We guarded him straight up to see if he could score,"
he said.
"He's improved his offense. He made shots,"
Kennedy said of Dials' play.
Towson was able to stay close to the Buckeyes in the
early going, but a seven point OSU run about midway through the first
half put OSU up by 13 at 26-13, and from that point on the Buckeyes
pretty much controlled the game. Towson could come no closer than
eight points and trailed 37-23 at the half.
"For the first five minutes we played well with
them," said Kennedy.
OSU opened the second half by scoring the first four
points to open a 41-23 lead. The Buckeyes steadily expanded their
lead to as many as 26 points in the second half.
"In basketball when you come out after half time
the first few minutes are huge for either team," said Dials.
"If you're the team up, you want to put the clamp
down and get up even more, and that was our mind set coming out,"
Dials said.
OSU shot 50% from the field while holding Towson to
just 31.4% shooting for the game. The Buckeyes committed just eight
turnovers in the game while Towson committed 17.
"A lot of those turnovers were not forced,"
said Kennedy. "We just threw the basketball away."
"Defensively I was pretty pleased with the way
we were able to keep the heat on the ball," said OSU Head Coach
Thad Matta. "I thought our positioning was better for longer
in the game."
"I thought that Tony Stockman tonight defensively
was really good.
"He deflected passes, was in the right position,"
said Matta.
The Buckeyes take on Robert Morris at 8:00 PM on Tuesday
in the Value City Arena for the right to advance to the tournament
final four in Kansas City.
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