Written by David Regimbal

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After a close game against over-matched IUPUI this past Thursday, Ohio State (8-0) made quick work of the Western Carolina Catamounts with an 85-60 victory Sunday afternoon.

The game started out with each team trading baskets before the Buckeyes put their foot on the gas and raced out to an 18-4 lead. Head coach Thad Matta knew that a good start was going to be important for the Buckeyes, “We came out with a little more intensity on defense to start this game, and we shared the ball well on offense, especially in the first half.”

Ohio State did share the ball well, assisting on 19 of their 28 made field goals in the game. The Buckeyes used a balanced attack on offense to dissect Western Carolina’s man-to-man defense. Five Ohio State players reached double digit scoring outputs. Sullinger again led the Buckeyes with 17, Buford, Lauderdale and Deshaun Thomas each scored 13 and Diebler added 10.

The Buckeyes hosted the game in St. John Arena, the old basketball facility that was home to Ohio State teams before Value City Arena (the Schottenstein Center) was built. It’s always special when current teams can experience playing in the building because it doesn’t happen very often. Unfortunately, the bad weather prevented a lot of fans from traveling to the game, but the players still enjoyed it, namely Jared Sullinger.

“I loved it; it was very loud and way smaller than the Schottenstein Center. There is a lot of history here and I loved it,” Sullinger said in his postgame remarks. “If there wasn’t a blizzard outside I think it would have been packed. You can really here the echo in here.”

Thad Matta had a different take on playing away from their usual court, “For me, whenever I walk into the arena, I think of all the history and great moments that have happened here. Hopefully, we’re building moments like that over at the Schottenstein Center.”

With the Buckeyes well in control of the game, coach Matta was able to substitute freely. It was a point of emphasis for the coaching staff after they only played seven different guys in Ohio State’s win over IUPUI Thursday night. Eleven different Buckeyes saw the court Sunday night, and bench players like Deshaun Thomas and Jordan Sibert played really well. Matta knows that developing the younger players will be pivotal for their future success, “The more we can get them in the game and develop our bench, the better off we’ll be.”

Quick Hits:

• Jared Sullinger dominated the weekly conference awards by earning Big Ten Player of the Week and Freshman Player of the Week honors. Sullinger has been named the Big Ten POW twice now, and has been the Freshman POW five times.
• Ohio State is one of the two remaining unbeaten teams in the conference with an 8-0 record. The other may surprise you; the Northwestern Wildcats are 5-0. 
• The Big Ten conference has been impressive to start the year. As a whole, the league’s record is 82-20, a winning percentage of just over 80%

Who's Next?

Ohio State will host the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles on Wednesday, December 15. The game will be carried by the Big Ten Network and will tip-off at 6:30 PM EST.