Bucks open league play strong against IU
Advertisement
The Buckeyes ran through the non-conference schedule unblemished and on Friday night started off the Big Ten season with a bang. The Buckeyes went into Bloomington (Ind.), led by William Buford and his season-high 24 points, and took down the Indiana Hoosiers (9-6, 0-2) 85-67. This is the first time Ohio State (24-0, 1-0) has won three-straight at Indiana since the late 1960's-early 1970's and improved its record to 8-29 all-time at Assembly Hall.
Jared Sullinger proved to be too much for a smaller Indiana team and put up 19 points and nine rebounds. Sullinger has been named Big Ten freshman of the week five times. He didn't appear to take over the game offensively but the Hoosiers had three players foul out including bigger players Derek Elston and Tom Pritchard.
The referee whistles blew early and often with 50 fouls called and Ohio State nearly doubled up on its average of fouls with 20 being called against it. No Buckeyes fouled out but both Sullinger and Aaron Craft played at the end with four.
Indiana connected for 25 field goals in the game while Ohio State had 23 but the difference was from beyond the arc and the Buckeyes nailed 13 of 19 from long distance and attempted 24 more free throws.
David Lighty had 11 points and Jon Diebler had 15 points to give the Buckeyes four players in double figures. Indiana was led by Christian Watford and his 17 points, Victor Oladipo had 14 and Jordan Hulls had 12.
Going into the game the Buckeyes took care of big road games at Florida and Florida State but there is always a question as to how a team with so many key freshmen will perform on the road in league play. Indiana University does not have classes in session at this time so the crowd was of a different make-up but as always they were loud and tried to rattle the Buckeyes.
It didn't seem to faze the Buckeyes however and DeShaun Thomas had eight points of his own but most of that came from the line where he was 6-7. Craft played 31 minutes and had four assists and two points.
The Buckeyes will play again opposite of the Sugar Bowl on January 4th against the Iowa Hawkeyes before making the home league debut on January 9th against the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
[rl]