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OSU can't hold lead when turnovers rise, shooting turns dismal
By Michael Marot
Associated Press
Published on Sunday, Dec 02, 2007
INDIANAPOLIS: Butler no longer needs its best game or even its 3-point aces to beat up basketball's big boys any more.
It can rely on defense, confidence and a new post presence.
Despite an off-night Saturday, the 16th-ranked Bulldogs allowed only 16 second-half points and got a breakout game from freshman Matt Howard to rally past Ohio State 65-46. It was the Bulldogs' fourth consecutive win over a team from the traditional power conferences.
''We've been through it all before, last year and at the Great Alaska Shootout, so we know what it takes,'' guard Mike Green said. ''It's not coming out in awe of these guys.''
The Bulldogs (7-0) tested that theory after a dismal first half in which the nation's best 3-point shooting team missed its first 15 3s and avoided a shutout in that category only because of A.J. Graves' buzzer-beater that stood up to replay review at halftime.
More discouraging was the Bulldogs' early carelessness. They entered the game averaging 9.2 turnovers but committed eight in the first 20 minutes, a stretch when their top three scorers — Green, Graves, and Pete Campbell — combined for just five points.
For another midmajor team or even a Butler team in a different year, that might have been enough to pack it in.
Not Saturday. Instead, the Bulldogs repeatedly went inside to Howard, who scored a career-high 23 points, and Graves and Green rediscovered their outside touch late in the game. Green finished with 15 points, all in the second half, when the Bulldogs wiped out a 12-point Buckeyes lead, while Graves added 14. Howard also grabbed seven rebounds and had two assists.
''We got pretty good looks in the first half; we just didn't knock them down,'' first-year Butler coach Brad Stevens said. ''The resiliency we showed, after going 0-for-15, was really, really good. You talk about moxie or whatever, and it was really good.''
Ohio State (4-3) was expected to have a big advantage inside with 7-foot freshman Kosta Koufos from GlenOak High School and 6-8 forward Othello Hunter.
Koufos finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and three blocks, and Hunter added 10 points and seven rebounds.
But with Jamar Butler plagued by foul trouble and shooting woes, the Buckeyes didn't have a consistent outside threat. Butler, averaging nearly 16 points coming in, finished with five.
The bigger problem was turnovers. Ohio State committed a season-high 24 and shot only 29.2 percent from the field in the second half, and that was all Butler needed to break out of its first-half doldrums.
The Buckeyes have lost three of four in a five-game span that has included games against four ranked teams.
''One of the things that really crushed us was 24 turnovers,'' said Buckeyes coach Thad Matta, a Butler graduate. ''I thought we did a good job getting the ball inside, but there was one time where we had four straight possessions with a turnover, and that can't happen.''
Butler took advantage of the Buckeyes' carelessness, even after losing Campbell to a right-knee injury with 11:47 left in the game.
For a while, it looked as if Ohio State were headed toward a rout.
The Buckeyes jumped to a 15-5 lead and extended it to 25-11 with 7:07 to go in the first half, the largest deficit the Bulldogs had faced this season.
But Graves' buzzer-beater from the right corner, which got Butler within 30-20 at the half, changed things.
Koufos opened the second with a putback, making it 32-20, and then the Bulldogs righted themselves. Campbell and Green combined for three consecutive 3-pointers to make it 32-29, and when the Buckeyes rebuilt a 38-31 lead, Green, Howard and Graves dug in. They combined for all of Butler's points in a 14-2 run that gave the Bulldogs a 45-40 lead with 7:24 left.
INDIANAPOLIS: Butler no longer needs its best game or even its 3-point aces to beat up basketball's big boys any more.
Get the full article here.
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