Buckeyes get 69-52 win at Indiana to move into three-way tie atop Big Ten standings.
Dallas Lauderdale
Ohio State moved into a three-way tie for first place in the Big Ten race with a businesslike 69-52 win over Indiana before 16,442 Wednesday night at Assembly Hall.
Ohio State (19-6, 9-3) won its eighth straight Big Ten game and earned a rare regular season sweep over Indiana (9-14, 3-8). In fact, this marks the first time in 41 years that Ohio State has taken a two-game regular season sweep over Indiana in consecutive seasons.
OSU, ranked 13th nationally, moved into a tie with Michigan State and Illinois, the Buckeyes’ next opponent, for the conference lead.
“That’s amazing,” said OSU coach Thad Matta. “The big thing we talked about coming into this game tonight was we had to come in here and take the game, knowing that Indiana plays very well here at home. Our guys came in and played with great energy.
“That’s what you want here in February – everybody coming together offensively and defensively and playing team basketball.”
With point guard Evan Turner saddled with foul trouble, wing William Buford stepped up and led the way for OSU with 21 points and seven rebounds.
“We all had to pick it up because he does so much for this team,” said Buford, who was 9 of 17 from the floor. “We feel like we can play with anybody. We just have to keep playing hard and take each game as it comes.”
Matta added, “Will is playing great basketball right now. For a sophomore, he has really matured. He has a great understanding of the game of basketball.”
OSU’s center tandem of Kyle Madsen and Dallas Lauderdale came up huge. Lauderdale matched his career-highs in points (14), rebounds (eight) and blocked shots (seven). He was 7 of 9 from the floor. Madsen had a career-high 11 points, going 4 of 5 from the floor and 3 of 3 at the foul line.
“I love Kyle,” Matta said. “He has a very high basketball IQ. He does exactly what we tell him to do. Tonight he was banging shots. Those two guys did a great job of finding seams and finding gaps. Dallas got a couple of alley oops off of it.”
Turner was saddled with two quick fouls and missed the last 17-1/2 minutes of the first half. Once he returned, Turner was content to set up his teammates. He still ended up with 10 points, seven rebounds and six assists in 21 minutes of work.
“Evan went down with 17 minutes to go in the first half and I was actually going to put him back in,” Matta said. “But our guys stepped up and went on a nice little run there late in the first half.”
David Lighty added six points and Jon Diebler scored three for the Buckeyes, who shot 48.2 percent from the floor and committed just six turnovers.
Christian Watford had 15 points and seven rebounds for Indiana, which dropped its fifth straight game. Jordan Hulls added 13 points and Verdell Jones III had 11 for the Hoosiers, who shot 37.0 percent (20 of 54) from the floor.
The Buckeyes never trailed in taking the win. In fact, they scored the game’s first nine points as IU missed its first six shots from the floor. Buford and Turner each hit jumpers to open the scoring. Diebler then canned a three and Lauderdale had a layup off a pass from Lighty on the fast break as OSU went up 9-0 with 16:43 left in the first half.
But the Buckeyes were without Turner for the balance of the half. He picked up his second foul contesting a shot with 17:25 left. OSU still led 16-9 after a three-point play by Madsen with 11:20 left in the half.
Indiana rallied with an 8-2 run, keyed by four points each from Verdell Jones and Jeremiah Rivers, to trim the gap to 18-17 with 7:48 left in the half. But the Hoosiers were never able to tie the game. Ohio State went on a 16-3 run over the final 7:21 of the half to go up 34-20 at halftime.
Buford answered IU’s run with a layup on the break and a driving bank shot. After Watford hit a three for Indiana, the Hoosiers missed their last five shots and had seven turnovers in the final 6:07 of the half.
The Buckeyes scored the last 12 points as Lauderdale tallied off an alley oop pass by Diebler, Jeremie Simmons had a layup off a Lauderdale blocked shot, Lauderdale had a jam off a Buford pass, Buford got a jam off an Indiana turnover, Buford made a pair of free throws and Lighty capped the scoring for the half with a drive for a slam.
“We were able to put a little run on them,” Matta said.
Indiana twice got as close as 10 points early in the second half. But the red-hot Buckeyes made 12 of their first 16 shots from the floor and quickly built an insurmountable 25-point lead.
Madsen hit a pair of baseline jumpers as OSU went up 56-37 with 11:02 left in the game. A trey by Buford off a Lighty assist put the Buckeyes up 23 at 61-38 with 9:35 left. A Lauderdale jam gave the Buckeyes their biggest lead at 65-40 with 7:51 left.
Lauderdale matched his career high with a jam off a Turner pass to put the Buckeyes up 69-48 with 3:25 left and the Buckeyes coasted to the win.
Also Notable
* Lauderdale matched his career-high with 14 points against Northwestern on Jan. 19. He also equaled his career-high in rebounds, marking the fifth time he has had as many as eight in a game. This is also the third time he has had as many as seven blocked shots in a game.
* Madsen eclipsed his previous career high of seven points against Alcorn State on Nov. 9.
* OSU improved to 7-29 all-time in Assembly Hall, which opened for the 1971-72 season. OSU’s wins in Assembly Hall came in 1985, 1991, 1999, 2000, 2004 and 2009. OSU’s 93-81 win there last year snapped a three-game losing streak in Bloomington.
The win was OSU’s largest by margin ever in Assembly Hall, eclipsing last year’s 12-point win. It matched OSU’s largest win ever at Bloomington (1970, 100-83).
* Ohio State completed a regular-season sweep against IU for just the fifth time in the 39-year history of Assembly Hall. The previous times were in 1985, 1991, 1999 and 2009. OSU also defeated Indiana Jan. 6 in Columbus (79-54).
* Indiana still leads the all-time series with OSU 99-72, including 60-22 in Bloomington.
* Matta is now 7-5 all-time against Indiana, including 7-4 as the coach at Ohio State.
* OSU improved to 3-5 in road games this season.
“These guys have seen a lot,” Matta said. “The environments we have been in and the teams we have played in those environments, I think they have a pretty good understanding of what needs to be done.”
* Ohio State visits Illinois (17-8, 9-3) at 1 p.m. Sunday. The game will be televised by CBS.
* Click here for the box score from ESPN.com. Click here for Dave Biddle's What We Learned column for this game.
