Thomas leads the Bucks to tournament title
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Deshaun Thomas has shown through his Ohio State career that he is a streaky shooter and on Sunday he started off on a hot streak as he scored 26 first half points en route to a 77-66 win for his Buckeyes over the Washington Huskies in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off tournament.
Thomas tied his career high of 31 points on the day (scored 31 vs. Loyola (Md.) in the 1st round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament) and added eight rebounds.
Aaron Craft had 18 points for the Buckeyes and senior Evan Ravenel hit double figures with 12 points. The Buckeyes shot 52-percent from the field in the first half and cooled off in the second half but it didn't matter as the Buckeyes kept the Huskies at an arm's distance for the remainder of the game.
C.J. Wilcox had 18 points for the Huskies in a losing effort while Abdul Gaddy had 15 points.
Ohio State made the most of the two game tournament after a 69-58 win over Rhode Island on Saturday afternoon. In that game Thomas was hot as well in posting a double-double with 25 points and 10 rebounds. Craft had 13 in a winning effort and Lenzelle Smith, Jr. had 15.
Thomas scored 15 of the Buckeyes' 19 first points of the game after converting on an in-bounds play out of a stoppage to give the Buckeyes a 18-18 lead. That was Thomas' seventh make on his seventh shot. The Buckeyes would go on a 12-4 run after that point to get the game up to 31-22 after Thomas drained one of his three three-point makes.
Sunday night was Ohio State's best outing in terms of rebounding with the Buckeyes grabbing six more boards than the Huskies. The Buckeyes also did a solid job in not turning the ball over, committing their first turnover late in the first half and only committing six throughout the game. On the flipside the Buckeyes turned Washington over 13 times.
A cause for concern would be the lack of production out of Smith Jr. and Sam Thompson who combined for three points. The Buckeyes picked up 13 points off of the bench with Amir Williams, LaQuinton Ross and Shannon Scott each playing pivotal roles in the Ohio State win.
The Buckeyes have improved to 3-0 on the season with the weekend sweep and are back in action on Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) against Missouri-Kansas City.
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