COLUMBUS, Ohio-- The Ohio State Buckeyes (14-7, 4-6 Big Ten) handled their business against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (11-10, 4-7 Big Ten) with a win by the score of 76-62 Saturday at the Schottenstein Center, ending Rutgers' three-game winning streak.
Ohio State did a number of things well against a big and physical Rutgers team, with sophomore forward Kaleb Wesson putting up a game-high 27 points, 21 of those points came in the first half, then senior guard C.J. Jackson added 20 points in just the second half.
Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said that veteran players like Jackson and even Wesson as a sophomore helped the Buckeyes stay focused and deliver one of the most complete games for the Buckeyes this season.
"The game today, I think was a complete game for us in a lot of ways," Holtmann said. "I was really proud of our older guys; and now when I'm talking about our older guys, I'm including our sophomores. Obviously, Kaleb gave us a great life there offensively."
Early in the game, Rutgers pushed back when they went an 8-0 run after the Buckeyes scored the first four points, but Kaleb Wesson took control and scored 12 points including two three-pointers that engineered an 11-0 run that put the score at 15-8 at the under-13 timeout.
However, with how good Wesson has played for the Buckeyes with 17 points and most importantly, no fouls, the Scarlet Knights started to push back with good shots, solid defense and gathering loose balls which included a 7-0 run and the Buckeyes not scoring in the last 2:07 to pull Rutgers to a four-point deficit at a score of 22-18 at the under-7 timeout of the first half.
At the under-5 timeout, Wesson is the story for the Buckeyes with a team-leading 19 points while going 7-of-8 from the field and also having three assists. All of this success with the Buckeyes not turning the ball over in the first 15 minutes of the game leading by the score of 29-22.
Holtmann said that it was a sight to see Wesson dominate the way he did in the first half which included a Wesson in a groove scoring 12 of the team's first 15 points, really setting the tone with his play down low in the paint as well as his shot from three, nailing 3-of-4 in the game.
"I kind of think he took what the defense gave him," Holtmann said. "Obviously, he was on a roll there and we knew he was on a roll. A lot of that was just within the flow of the offense. You've heard me in the summer say, 'We need him to shoot threes, he has great touch,' We've charted every shooting drill, he's Top-5 or 6 in our team in terms of shooting drills, so we want him to continue to do that."
The Buckeyes and Scarlet Knights finished the first half with a 37-29 lead for the Scarlet and Gray with Wesson having a 21-point first half and his fourth career 20-point game with having missed just one shot from the field, as well as the Buckeye team going 7-of-15 from behind the three-point line.
The Buckeyes finished going 13-of-28 from three with Jackson and freshman guard Luther Muhammad each nailing four shots from downtown. Holtmann said that even though the shooting today was at a high level, that success does seem to mask some deficiencies.
"I thought our shotmaking can cover up some things and we made 13 threes," Holtmann said. "I think our guys took great shots and our guys screened well and the quality of shot was a high level, but there are definitely some areas that you pull out of this and say, 'We need to be better moving forward.'"
Ohio State proved to be considerably better handling the ball in the first half against Rutgers from their first half in Ann Arbor, Michigan. When the Buckeyes had 11 turnovers against their arch rival while having committed no turnovers against the Scarlet Knights.
In the duration of the game, the Buckeyes committed just six turnovers, 13 less than the amount amassed last game against the Wolverines and Jackson said the intense focus on eliminating turnovers in practice had a big part in the success that was seen today.
"We've been preaching in practice turnovers," Jackson said. "Last couple of games we've been shooting ourselves in the foot just having a lot of turnovers. I think last game we had 19. So, when you play against teams in the Big Ten that are just physical defensively, hard to score on and then you turn the ball over, you'll be in for long nights. So, in practice, we practice every day just work on our turnovers. We have to do a little extra conditioning for turning the ball over, so I think that helped translate to today."
With the start of the second half, Jackson gave the Buckeyes a boost and put up five points going 2-of-3 with a three-pointer and a steal to put the score at 42-31 at the under 18-timeout.
As the second half went on, the Buckeyes started to turn the ball over more frequently with three so far in the second frame and Andre Wesson gathered his fourth foul with Rutgers refusing to go away with the score at an eight-point deficit of 48-40 at the 12-minute timeout.
With Kaleb Wesson having just two points so far in the second half, Jackson has taken control for the Buckeyes as he has 12 points in the first 12:15 giving the Buckeyes a 57-47 point lead at the under-8 timeout.
The Buckeyes kept the Scarlet Knights at bay capturing a 76-62 win that started the month of February off with a win after what was a disastrous month of January.
With how frustrating this last past month has been for the Buckeyes, especially Kaleb Wesson, Wesson said that to see the clock go all the way down to double zeroes with the kind of contribution that he had felt good.
"It's been a tough stretch of games, not having scored a lot," Wesson said. "It just felt good to finally let the ball go in the rim and my teammates finding me. It felt really good."
The Buckeyes will look to build some confidence with another win against a struggling Penn State Nittany Lions (7-14, 0-10 Big Ten) team Thursday at the Schott with a tip-off at 7 p.m.
