The Buckeyes traveled to Morgantown today to take on the Mountaineers of West Virginia in a matchup of ranked teams, setting the stage for an intense game with tournament-seeding implications.

What a start for the Buckeyes!  You know it's a fantastic beginning when you're up 8-0 and the opposing fans are already booing you.  Of course, that had something to do with Evan Turner's spectacular 360 slam after Diebler and Lighty had dropped in a pair of sweet three pointers.  Amusingly, the West Virginia fans decided that Turner's slam was well worthy of extra attention and began a profane chant to make their feelings known.

Ohio State clearly came out of the gate with energy on defense.  The Mountaineers were a little surprised by the intensity and found themselves taking poor shots and turning the ball over more often than they wanted to.  The Buckeyes defensive effort led to several fast breaks that clearly hurt West Virginia early.  What hurt even more was the Buckeyes shooting from downtown which seemed almost unstoppable.

That wasn't going to stop the Mountaineers from answering from beyond the arc themselves, hitting a few key three-pointers to keep themselves in the game.  The Mountaineers just couldn't seem to miss towards the end of the first half even with a hand in their face.  Ohio State consistently had a response, though, in the form of Buford and Diebler draining just about every deep shot they took.  They were smoking hot and didn't look like they were going to cool down.

West Virginia made some good adjustments on defense and began to stick a defender on Turner's hip as he brought the ball up the court.  The Bucks responded by picking the player off, leaving Turner a free lane to the basket which he happily took advantage of.  This strategy only worked for so long as the Buckeyes tried to reassert their offensive strategy, allowing West Virginia to force them into some easy turnovers.

Once again, Ohio State was victimized by an unexpected three point shooter.  In the first half, Senior Forward Wellington Smith has gotten hot in previous games from beyond the arc, but he's not usually a spectacular shooter.  As per normal for Ohio State, though, Smith warmed up and just couldn't miss hitting 3-3 from 3 (4-4 from the floor) in the first half.  Why do we always seem to play great defense on everyone except for one person who decides to be suddenly dangerous?

The Buckeyes shot extremely well through the half, though it seemed to cool off quite a bit towards halftime.  Ohio State hit 57.1% (16-28) from the floor and 55.6% (5-9) from three.  That kind of shooting is extremely hard to overcome, especially for the Mountaineers who only hit 38.5% (10-26) and 50% (6-12) from three.  Respectable numbers, but no-where near enough to keep up with OSU's torrid shooting.  The half ended with the Buckeyes up 40-28.

Coming out of the gate, I did not expect the Buckeyes to do such an excellent job of shutting West Virginia down and smoking them on the offensive end.  The defensive effort was incredible from everyone, but extra kudos go out to Buford, Turner and Lighty for forcing so many turnovers (West Virginia had 8 for the half).  The Mountaineers counteracted the Buckeye defense - which was often alternating between man and zone - by launching the three-ball.  The strategy seemed to work to keep the game from getting too far out of hand.  Unfortunately for West Virginia, it didn't reduce the deficit at all.

The second half started out a little slowly for both teams.  The defense was pretty solid all around, but West Virginia managed to make some things happen down in the paint against Lauderdale by forcing Dallas into fouling.  Narrowing the score a little bit seemed to give the Mountaineer's some momentum, and a quick steal of Evan Turner and fast break 4-1 against Buford that ended with a powerful tomahawk jam forced Thad Matta into a timeout to try to stem the sudden torrent of Mountaineer scoring.

The timeout did nothing for the Buckeyes.  The Mountaineers completely shut down the Buckeyes offense, allowing them to score absolutely nothing through the first few minutes of the game.  The defensive stand allowed WVU to close the gap from 12 to as close to 2 in a 3 minute run that the Bucks seemed to have no answer for.  Particularly important was that West Virginia managed to take Evan Turner out completely out of the Ohio State offense, which effectively hamstrung the Bucks.

With the Buckeyes holding a slim 4 point lead, West Virgina dropped a huge three pointer that made it seem like this game was quickly going to slip away.  That's when Buford found his shot.  From the right corner, Buford sank a long two that honestly had no business going in after it rimmed around a bit.  The next two series saw Buford hit a three, and a nice two point jumper to increase the Buckeye lead and give a little bit of offensive rhythm.

The battle continued through the middle of the half with the teams trading shots with each other.  The Buckeyes had a couple of pretty plays, including one where Turner got the ball down in the paint dribbled around and found an open passing lane to Lauderdale who put in the excellent layup around the defender.  Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to keep West Virginia from taking their first lead of the game on a huge three pointer from the left corner.

With around seven minutes remaining in the second half, Turner went to the line and sank two key free throws to momentarily halt West Virginia's momentum.  However, Butler came back on the next Mountaineer possession to drain yet another three.  With the two possession lead, West Virginia's pace slowed on offense as the focus shifted to clock management.  The Mountaineers failed to convert, but Ohio State was unable to capitalize fully, as Turner only made one of three on successive opportunities at the line.

After an easy WVU layin on a defensive breakdown by the Buckeyes, Turner returned to the line and managed to hit both.  As OSU attempted to claw back with four minutes remaining in the game and a five point difference in the score, Turner began driving to the basket in earnest, determined to get to the rim or draw the foul.  But after another Mountaineer layup and the lead extended to seven, Turner's next drive resulted in a turnover as he lost the ball off his foot in the paint.  The scenario repeated itself in the next series, with West Virginia converting on a free throw and the Buckeyes responding with a turnover off an offensive foul.

Sitting on a comfortable lead of eight and time running out for Ohio State to make a push, the Mountaineers tried to tighten the screws on defense.  Hope was kindled again as a Jon Diebler pair of free throws decreased the Bucks' deficit to six, and Turner ripped down a huge rebound off a missed three on West Virginia's trip down the floor and took it the length of the floor, managing to get to the hoop for a good look.  The shot caromed off, but Lauderdale was there to clean up the miss.  West Virginia failed to convert on their possession, and the Buckeyes had a final chance to draw close, but Diebler's three rimmed out, and West Virginia sealed the win with two final free throws.