Another double-double for Turner

It did not look good for Ohio State Wednesday night as the Buckeyes fell behind host Iowa by seven points midway through the second half.

But the 20^th-ranked Buckeyes had David Lighty, Evan Turner and some timely defense on their side. Ohio State shrugged off a sluggish start with a late 12-0 run on its way to a 65-57 win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

A loss at Iowa would have been devastating for Ohio State. The Hawkeyes came into a game with a losing record and were ranked a distant 164th in the all-important RPI rankings.

But just such a defeat looked like a distinct possibility after the Hawkeyes grabbed a 45-38 lead with 8:15 left. However, the Buckeyes outscored the Hawkeyes 27-12 over the final seven minutes – including 12 straight points at one juncture – to steal the win.

“I give our guys a lot of credit,” said OSU coach Thad Matta, whose team improved to 15-6 overall and 5-3 in Big Ten play. “They kept their composure in the second half. Our guys made some big plays and the ball finally went into the basket for us.

“Our guys showed a lot of heart. This was a game where we had to be ready to go mentally, and I wasn’t sold that we were ready mentally. It’s a great team win.”

Wing David Lighty scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half and chipped in eight rebounds to lead the Buckeyes, who won their fourth game in five outings.

“I think the crowd got to us,” said Lighty, who was 7 of 11 from the floor, 3 of 4 on three-pointers and 3 of 3 at the foul line. “Our minds weren’t right. Give Iowa credit. They made us play their game.”

Point guard Evan Turner very nearly had another triple-double with 16 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. William Buford added 11 points and Dallas Lauderdale made all five of his field goal attempts to finish with 10 points.

Guard Eric May had 18 points, connecting on 5 of 10 three-pointers, to lead Iowa (8-13, 2-6). The Hawkeyes, who had won three of their last four games, took 31 of their 55 shots behind the three-point arc and made 10 of them (32.3 percent).

While Iowa played its brand of deliberate basketball, Ohio State was its own worst enemy for most of the game with quick shots that went begging. The Hawkeyes led 25-20 at halftime after OSU hit 10 of 25 shots from the floor (40 percent), but missed all seven of its three-point tries and all three of its free throws.

“Twenty points (at halftime) … that’s ridiculous,” Matta said. “We didn’t play with confidence in the first half. Iowa played a heck of a game offensively and defensively. There was something missing with our offense. We didn’t have the drive with our defense.”

Lighty added, “We were 0 for 7 on threes in the first half shooting the ball. That’s not us. Coach said our minds weren’t right. We wanted to come out and attack.”

Lighty and Turner each hit threes early in the second half as OSU forged a tie at 28-28 with 15:58 left.

But Iowa stayed with its game plan and, behind three timely three-pointers by May and another by Devan Bawinkel, jumped out to a 45-38 lead with 8:15 left in the game.

“I don’t know what timeout it was, but I finally just said, ‘You have to play now. We have to make some plays. We’ve got to put the ball in the basket and we have to go down there and make some stops,’ ” Matta said.

Even worse, Turner missed a three-point try and the ball went out of bounds to Iowa. Iowa’s Brennan Cougill then had a clean look at a three-pointer that would have put the Hawkeyes up 10 with 6:54 left, but it went halfway down before it somehow came out.

Turner ripped the defensive rebound and went coast-to-coast, banking the ball in to cut the lead to 45-40 with 6:44 left. That was the start of OSU’s 27-12 spurt to close the game.

Lighty completed a three-point play when he was fouled on a drive to cut the gap to 47-45 with 5:15 left. Iowa’s May answered with a trey from the right corner to make it 50-45 with 4:44 left. But Lighty stood tall and drilled a three from the top of the key off an assist from Jon Diebler to make it 50-48 with 4:21 left.

“Thank goodness Dave came to play there,” Matta said. “He hit a couple big threes there.”

That Lighty shot was the beginning of OSU’s decisive 12-0 run. Lauderdale tallied off a lob on an inbounds pass by Turner to tie the game at 50-50 with 3:35 left.

May then missed a three-point try at Iowa’s end. May then blocked a dunk attempt by Buford, but Turner got the rebound and fed Lighty. Lighty made a perfectly time hesitation drive and scored to give the Buckeyes their first lead since late in the first half at 52-50 with 2:44 left.

Iowa guard Cully Payne then tried a drive, but Lauderdale swatted that shot and Turner rebounded it with 2:27 left. After a pair of OSU misses and offensive rebounds, Buford was fouled. He made 1 of 2 free throws for a 53-50 lead with 2:18 left.

Turner then stole a long Iowa inbounds pass by Matt Gatens near midcourt and went in for a one-handed jam for a 55-50 lead with 1:42 left.

Gatens then misfired on a three. Lighty rebounded and got the ball to Turner, who went in for a driving left-handed layup and a 57-50 lead with 1:04 left.

May gave Iowa some hope with a three from the right wing, cutting the OSU lead to 57-53 with 46.3 seconds left.

But the Buckeyes stood tall at the foul line in the final 37 seconds as Diebler made a pair of free throws and Turner made four. Turner also had another steal where he simply ripped the ball away from Payne and went in for a layup that also helped clinch it.

OSU late-game run corresponded with a change in defenses as the Buckeyes moved to a three-quarters court trap to get Iowa out of its halfcourt rhythm.

“We thought we would go with it and maybe it would get us playing a little harder,” Matta said. “We wanted to shrink the shot clock so we only had to defend (in the halfcourt) for 25 seconds instead of 35 seconds.”

The Buckeyes committed just five turnovers for the game shot 13-of-17 from the free throw line in the second half and held Iowa's Aaron Fuller to six points on 2-of-11 shooting.

Diebler added six points and nine rebounds for OSU. Kyle Madsen had one basket for two points – OSU’s only bench scoring.

Jarryd Cole added nine points for Iowa. Besides Fuller, Gatens and Bawinkel had six points for the Hawkeyes.

Also Notable

* Iowa lost its 15^th consecutive game against a ranked opponent.

* OSU improved to 2-5 on the road this season.

* OSU defeated Iowa for the fifth time in six meetings with the Hawkeyes. OSU trimmed the all-time edge held by Iowa to 73-66. OSU has won six of its last 10 visits to Iowa.

* Turner had a double-double for the ninth time in 15 games this season. It was his third consecutive double-double. OSU is 5-2 since Turner returned from his back injury.

* Lighty led OSU in scoring for the fifth time in 21 games this year.

* Ohio State hosts Minnesota (13-7, 4-4 Big Ten) Sunday at 1 p.m. That game will be televised by CBS. That game will be the first of a critical three-game homestand for the Buckeyes, who also host Penn State Feb. 3 and Iowa on Feb. 7.

* Click here for the box score from ESPN.com. Click here for Dave Biddle’s What We Learned column.