CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The Buckeyes had run off a nice start to the season, but nobody was quite sure how this young team would perform on the road. On Wednesday night, we got our answer, at least in a one-game setting as the No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes took it to the No. 7 North Carolina Tar Heels, 74-49.
Ohio State's 25-point win is the second largest ever in the Dean Smith Center, only trailing a 29-point win by Duke in 2002. The Buckeyes outscored UNC by 23 points in the second half, the largest single half disparity in the history of the building, surpassing 22 points, which was done twice (Maryland – 1997, Temple 1988).
Duane Washington Jr. led the Buckeyes with 18 points while EJ Liddell provided 12 key points off the bench and a total of four Buckeyes scored in double-figures. Cole Anthony led UNC with 15 points and was the only Tar Heel to score in double-figures.
"My teammates did a great job of finding me and the coaches did a great job of calling sets," Washington said. "With me, just trusting the offense and letting it come to me and not getting controlled by the game. Put them up and a couple of them went in early."
Ohio State's second half helped extend a two-point halftime lead where the Buckeyes held on through a half that was littered with mistakes. Ohio State would go on to shoot 53.6-percent in the second half to UNC's 25.9-percent.
"I am proud of our guys, we weathered some times where we did not perform particularly well really on the end of turnovers, we got to get better at that," Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said.
The game changed trajectory early when UNC lost Armando Bacot and his 11.7 points per game to an ankle injury. That allowed Ohio State to hold a size edge in many ways and Ohio State would go on to outrebound the Tar Heels 48-32.
The Buckeyes got off to a slow start and watched Carolina get off to a 5-0 lead as Ohio State struggled to get a shot off, but that drought was snapped when Washington hit his first three-pointer of the half to cut the lead down to 5-3.
Kaleb Wesson would follow it up with another three, one of Ohio State's five made three's in the first half, most of them occurring early in the half as the Buckeyes started to find their stroke.
Ohio State would open up an eight-point lead on a Luther Muhammad bucket on the break, 20-12 at the 12:05 mark of the first half.
The Buckeyes would not be able to keep things going however as turnovers and unforced errors continued to add up, Ohio State would commit 10 in the first frame, including on four consecutive possessions, but the Tar Heels could not capitalize, no matter how hard the Buckeyes tried to give things away.
Ohio State would take a slim two-point lead to halftime with a 29-27 lead despite not scoring in the final 4:16 of the half. Carolina would have its own cold streak and not score for the final 2:41 as the two teams would 2-17 from the field to end the frame.
"I felt like we kind of had the game where we wanted it in terms of our defensive attention to detail. I thought offensively we just had to get better," Holtmann added. "Duane bailed us out a bit in the first six minutes and we got a little impatient at times. But I thought our turnovers, that was the biggest hang-up for me."
Ohio State would shoot 39.3-percent in the half while Carolina would go 28.6-percent as Washington led all scorers with 12 at the midway mark. Cole Anthony would lead UNC with eight.
The Buckeyes would open up a nine-point lead early in the second half at a 39-30 margin before Anthony would splash a pair of three-pointers to cut the lead to three points. From that point on, the Buckeyes would go on to outscore the Tar Heels 35-13 the rest of the way.
Ohio State would dominate in the paint with a 30-10 edge without Barcot out there and Ohio State's bench would do a lot of good with 25 points for the visiting team.
The Buckeyes won't have too long to celebrate this one with the Big Ten season starting on Saturday as Ohio State hosts Penn State on the same day as the Big Ten Championship Game in football.
"We have got to move forward quickly with an outstanding team here on Saturday in Penn State," Holtmann said,.
