MENS BASKETBALL: Buckeyes Didn’t Let the Big One Get Away

By Jim Naveau, The Lima News, Ohio

Jan. 14–COLUMBUS — Let other people talk about the Final Four. Ohio State’s men’s basketball team just wanted to get one of the first four. The No. 5-ranked Buckeyes (14-3) got their first win over a Top 25 team this season when Ron Lewis nailed a 3-pointer with 12 seconds to play to beat No. 16 Tennessee 68-66 on Saturday at the Value City Arena. Before Saturday, they had lost their first three match-ups with Top 25. “We were 0-3. Wisconsin beat us, North Carolina beat us, Florida beat us. We finally got one on our homecourt,” junior guard Jamar Butler said. OSU center Greg Oden had his most dominant game of the season with 24 points, 15 rebounds and three blocked shots against a Tennessee team whose tallest starter was five inches shorter than the 7-foot freshman. But it was Lewis — who scored only one lonely hoop in the first 39 minutes — who delivered the game-winner. Freshman point guard Mike Conley Jr. added 16 points for the Buckeyes. Guards Chris Lofton (23 points) and Ramar Smith (14 points) led Tennessee. “It gives us confidence,” Oden said. “We needed confidence against a good team. We proved we can play tough and pull out a victory.” Butler, of Shawnee High School, was held to two points but drew the defensive assignment on Tennessee’s leading scorer Lofton most of the game. Coach Thad Matta said the win was much-needed. “I hope it gives us a jolt,” the OSU coach said. Oden jolted Tennessee (13-4) with 16 points in the first half, including five dunks. But the Buckeyes found themselves down by as many as five points, at 31-26, late in the first half and needed backto-back 3-pointers by Conley in the last 1:12 of the first half to take a 36-33 lead at halftime. OSU led by 10 points, 49-39, early in the second half before Tennessee came back to take the lead twice in the final minute on drives by Lofton, a second-team All-American last season. The second one gave the Volunteers a 66-65 lead with 46 seconds to play. Tennessee missed the front end of two one-and-ones in the final minute to open the door for Lewis and Ohio State. Oden had scored 17 points combined in OSU’s last two games before Saturday. So there was a conscious effort on Ohio State’s part to get him the ball more and he was determined to take the ball to the basket more. “Coach had the mindset that we were going to attack them inside. My teammates did a great job of getting the ball to me and from there, it was a dunk,” Oden said. Conley, a high school teammate of Oden, indicated Saturday’s game was reminiscent of Oden before he had surgery on his right wrist last summer. “He was showing me a lot I haven’t seen in a while,” Conley said. Tennessee’s defensive tactics, which are the same Oden has seen all season, might have had him showing more than he wanted to at one point in the game, the 7-footer joked. “When it comes to me there are no tricks. I turn around and see two hands pushing me. Guys wrap around my arms. I get it all,” Oden said. “Today I think somebody grabbed my shorts and my butt was out for a second. I’m dead serious, I felt a little wind chill.” Lewis, a senior averaging 13.2 points a game, felt a chill most of the game. He didn’t attempt a shot in the game’s first 15 minutes and didn’t get his first points until early in the second half. But as a 46-percent shooter on the season, including 38 percent on 3-pointers, he didn’t hesitate when the game was on the line. “Really, I just thought about winning. I didn’t even know how many points we were down. I just knew we needed a bucket to win,” Lewis said. In the final seconds, Tennessee’s Ramar Smith got off a shot to tie the game but missed and teammate Wayne Chism’s uncontrolled tip also was off target.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Lima News, Ohio

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