The #3 Ohio State Buckeyes (9-0) continue action in the Gotham Classic on Saturday evening by hosting the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Bison, winners 73-69 over Notre Dame on Wednesday. North Dakota State enters Saturday’s contest with a record of 7-3 and sporting a 5 game winning streak. After this game, Ohio State will host Delaware on December 18th, then go to NYC to face Notre Dame for an evening game on Saturday, December 21st.
Here’s their Profile -
School: North Dakota State University
Location: Fargo, ND
Founded: 1890
Student Population: 12,332
School Type: Public, coed
Division: D-I
Conference: Summit League
Arena: Chace Bison Sports Arena
Seating: 5,830
Built: 1993
Head Coach: Saul Phillips
Year: 6th
The Buckeyes used great ball movement, forced turnovers and drained a three point shot early to take home a 86-48 win over Bryant University Wednesday night. Despite a slow start on both sides of the floor, Ohio State settled in midway through the first half to dominate one of the newer teams in Division 1 basketball. And they did it early and often by using excellent ball reversal and draining the wide open three. Combined with a stellar defensive effort swiping and blocking the basketball.
All it took was seven minutes of play to warm up to the system that Thad Matta loves to run. Using pressure d to create steals and turnovers, and set up open shots. After feeling out their opponent, the Bucks nailed four of their first five three point attempts. Lenzelle Smith, who played one of the best games of his career shooting wise — kept OSU afloat early, scoring seven points int the first seven minutes of the ballgame. It was his wide open three with thirteen minutes to go that opened the floodgates. On the following Buckeye possession, the ball got rolling when big man Trey McDonald backed down his defender on the right low block and found teammate LaQuinton Ross wide open at the top of the key to make it 22-11 with 11:51 to go in the first half.
No matter what you might hear over the next few days, we’d never leave you for Austin.
Sure they’ve got great barbecue and music and… you know, on second thought… Nah. It’s always a great day to be a Buckeye- and there’s only one place in Texas that I’d be interested in going to anyway.
Buckeye 411
Good Works? Swoon- Hey, our favorite senior point guard has been nominated for the AllState Good Works Team. No word on whether or not this gives him three “Get out of a foul” cards in B1G play, though.
Thad is pleased
Sorry for running late with this recap. I gad some technical difficulties last night.
As expected, Thad’s Buckeyes provided the afternoon appetizer as a prelude to the main course this evening. The Buckeyes, as expected, beat the outmatched Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) Blue Devils 76-54. The 5th ranked Buckeyes had little trouble moving to 8-0 this afternoon, with an all around solid performance, led by a career high 23 points by LaQuinton Ross.
In the 1st four minutes OSU jumped out to a 13-2 lead, driven by 5 points by LQT and 4 points by Amir. But, as we’ve seen with the football team, fast starts often precede a flattening and at the 10:22 mark OSU’s lead was 22-10. Not expanding the lead, but merely holding serve during the 6 minute interim.
At just under the 8 minute mark a jumper by Shannon Scott put the score at 26-17, somewhat reversing a “cooling off” of OSU’s shooting, which at this point was ‘down’ to 52&. Which gives you some idea how well the Buckeyes had started the game. Also, at this point, both teams were doing much better with interior shooting, as they’d combined for 2-11 from 3-point range. Not good.
The Buckeye malaise continued for the next four minutes as CCSU pulled to within 23-28 on a layup by Khalen Cumberlander. At the 3:37 mark, a 3-pointer by Lenzelle moved the margin up a bit, the the teams traded turnovers to slow things down. At a little over two minutes left, LQR reasserted himself wit a basket +1 to move score to 36-23. However, the Blue Devils surged a bit at the end of the half, capped by a layup by Kyle Vinales to pull CCSU to within 38-29 at the half.
Fifth ranked Ohio State (7-0) gets back into action after taking care of the Maryland Terrapins Wednesday night in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. They host the Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) Blue Devils. The game is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, so this will be a nice appetizer prior to the football game at 8:00 PM.
Here’s a profile on OSU’s next opponent:
School: Central Connecticut State University Blue Devils
Location: New Britain, CT
Founded: 1849
Student Population: 9,942
School Type: Public, coed
Division: D-I
Conference: Northeast Conference (NEC)
Arena: Detrick Gymnasium
Seating: 2,654
Built: 1965, renovated 2005
Head Coach: Howie Dickenman
Year: 18th
This header should look familiar
Ohio State gets back into action after taking care of the North Florida Ospreys last Friday, 99-64. The #5 Buckeyes (5-0) host the Maryland Terrapins in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The Terrapins (5-2) are riding a 4-game winning streak. As an aside, the Ohio State and Maryland women’s basketball teams are also playing tonight at 7:00 PM in College Park, MD. If you want to catch OSU-Maryland basketball, tonight is the night for you.
Here’s a profile on the University of Maryland
School: University of Maryland
Location: College Park, MD
Founded: 1856
Student Population: 26,487
School Type: Public, coed
Division: D-I
Conference: ACC (for now)
Arena: Comcast Center
Seating: 17,950
Built: 2002
Head Coach: Mark Turgeon
Year: 3rd
Here we are, rolling into the holidays and Ohio State hosts the University of North Florida Ospreys this Friday, with the tip-off scheduled for 5:00 PM EST. In the past week and a half, the Buckeyes have defeated the Golden Eagles, the Eagles and now face the Ospreys. This could be a bad month for birds of prey.
Here’s a profile on University of North Florida.
School: University of North Florida Ospreys
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Founded: 1965
Student Population: 16,357
School Type: Public, coed
Division: D-I
Conference: Atlantic Sun Conference
Arena: UNF-Arena
Seating: 5,800
Built: 1993
Head Coach: Mathew Driscoll
Year: 5th
The last time the Bucks played the Cowboys was in 1995, which resulted in a 72-65 loss on a “neutral” court in Wyoming. This time around, things turned out a little differently as the Buckeyes found their game in the last ten minutes to secure the 65-50 victory. Lenzelle Smith Jr. led all scorers with 20 points, including 5-8 shooting the three, and 8 rebounds. Amir Williams joined him in double digits with 12 points, and earned his second double double with 16 rebounds, while Aaron Craft scored 10. Larry Nance Jr. scored 17 to lead his team, and was the only Cowboy to score double digits.
The game started with high energy play from both teams. Wyoming demonstrated good patience in attacking the Buckeye defense. Repeatedly they found gaping holes in the defense, giving them uncontested paths to an easy layup. They also had no trouble finding open looks at the basket. Considering OSU was still playing a high energy defense, it was an impressive start.
Unfortunately for the Cowboys, they walked straight into a hot shooting OSU team. Shannon Scott and Lenzelle Smith both launched buckets from beyond the arc and hit their first three straight. Amir Williams also started particularly well down low. Williams scooped up two offensive rebounds and managed to put them both back for points.
After the first four minutes, the teams settled into play a little and began to methodically probe each other’s defenses. Wyoming’s guards turned out to be the winners here, effectively drawing the defense and taking advantage of the pass to find easy looks. The Buckeyes began to struggle to find good looks at the basket at the same time, giving Wyoming the perfect opportunity to close the gap on the scoreboard.
Thad Matta wasn’t going to simply let Wyoming have their way with his defense. A quick adjustment was all that was necessary to head the Cowboys off at the pass. The next time Wyoming ran their play to open up the OSU defense for the dribble drive, Aaron Craft rotated under the basket to be in position to defend it. Other adjustments helped to shut down the Wyoming offense while the Buckeyes went on a 8-2 run, opening up a double digit lead.
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