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Ohio State 89, Windsor 47 (Box Score)

Buckeyes improved to 2-0 in Canada

Walter Offutt produced the offense early with 10 first half points.

WINDSOR, Ontario-Ohio State improved to 2-0 on its three-game exhibition schedule in Canada with an 89-47 victory over the University of Windsor Saturday.

William Buford and Walter Offutt provided the offense with 16 and 14 points respectively. Buford, a sophomore from Toledo, connected on 7 of 12 shots from the field while Offutt, a sophomore from Indianapolis, made 4 of 7 shots, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range.

Jon Diebler led the Buckeyes with seven assists and was one of three Buckeyes with nine points, along with Dallas Lauderdale and P.J. Hill.

Evan Turner, the top scorer in the Big Ten last year, tallied 11 points, seven rebounds a four assists. He started the game at point guard after playing all of last year at the off guard spot.

The Buckeyes led 47-25 at the half behind Offutt’s 10 points and William Buford’s eight. Ohio State shot 56 percent from the field (19-34) and had assists on 11 of those baskets over the first two quarters. Offutt connected on all three first-half shots, including a pair of 3s.

Balance offensively was the story in the early going with 24 of 47 first half points credited to the Ohio State bench. The reserves scored 38 points for the game.

Ohio State will take Sunday off from competition and practice to attend a Detroit Tigers game. The squad will have a team dinner in Detroit before returning to Canada for the final day of the trip.

The Buckeyes face the University of Western Ontario at noon Monday and return to Columbus immediately after game.

Ohio State officially begins practice for the 2009-10 season Oct. 16. The Buckeyes open the season Nov. 9 in Columbus vs. Alcorn State.

From Duffer's Dabbles Bob Duff Blog

Buckeyes Hill encourages Lancers Collins

Senior guard P.J. Hill, who led Ohio State with 18 points in Friday’s 90-39 victory over the Windsor Lancers at the St. Denis Centre, sought out Lancers freshman guard Josh Collins after the game to offer some words of encouragement. “I know what it’s like to be a freshman,” Hill said. “You’ve got to just play under control at all times. You get tentative when you’re young. It’s your first game, but be under control, run your team. Don’t back down because you’re younger. You’ve got nothing to lose. You’re trying to win. Seniority doesn’t play a role in winning. Everybody wants to win. So that’s what I was pretty much telling him. I like to help out younger players, because that’s what other players have done for me.”
Buckeyes forward David Lighty, who added 16 points in his first game since a broken foot sidelined him seven games into the 2008-09 season, admitted there wasn’t much that Ohio State knew about Windsor beforehand. “We heard some things about how they play,” Lighty said. “Coach (Thad Matta) got us prepared for them. A lot of dribble, drive and penetrating kicks as a team. We tried to work on our close-out game to deal with that.”
Junior forward Evan Turner agreed that the Lancers were a bit of a mystery to the Buckeyes. “We had no clue,” Turner said. “We just heard they could shoot pretty well. That was about it. We just tried to come out and play our offence, play our roles and play tough. We’ve still got to play to our standards and play hard.”
Matta liked that his team was forced to improvise its plan of attack in the midst of playing the Lancers. “I told them coming into this game, ‘You’re going to have to adjust on the fly,’” Matta said. “I thought we did a better job of playing the one kid who made some shots early (Lancers guard Andre Smyth) and of just recognizing that they can shoot the basketball.” Ohio State entered the weekend series, which concludes Saturday at 6 p.m., with no film and little scouting background on Windsor’s team. “Not really, no,” Matta said. “We were all watching warm-ups trying to get a feel for who was who. We had a little bit of feel just off stats sheets from last year of what guys could do. When they put their starters in, we just said, ‘Hey, this guy shot this percentage, this guy is left-handed.’ That was about it.” So what did he learn about Windsor from one game? “Defensively, they knew what they were doing,” Matta said. “They shot 31 threes. They didn’t have the traditional post in their lineup, which is different from what we’re going to see in the Big 10.”
Another factor that pleased Matta was that his team didn’t take Windsor lightly. Consider the following exchange between Buckeyes assistant coach Brandon Miller and guard Jeremie Simmons as Simmons was subbing into the game in the third quarter. “You know, we’re losing (this quarter),” Miller pointed out to Simmons. Though the Buckeyes led 53-29 at the time, Windsor owned a 6-5 edge for the period. Simmons entered the game and promptly nailed a basket to rectify that situation. “We kept our intensity defensively,” Matta said. “Usually, it’s the other way around. You don’t guard when you score.”
Lancers coach Chris Oliver was impressed by how the Buckeyes embrace the team concept. “The understanding that it wasn’t my shot, it was their shot,” Oliver said. “They never settled for one guy saying, ‘This is my shot and I’m going to shoot it every time.’ They found the right shot for their team. I think that’s a lesson for our guys, that we’ve got to get to that level.”
Smyth was left pondering what the Lancers could do during Saturday’s game to close the gap between the two teams. “We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Smyth said. “It’s just an amazing experience. We’ve just got to learn from this game and pick up the defence (Saturday).” He believes the benefit of this exhibition series will show when the Lancers get into league play. “We know that we’re not going to play a team at nearly the calibre of this team in our league,” Smyth said. “We know how good we are compared to Ohio State, so we know what we can do against teams from the OUA. This is a good measure for our team.”
Oliver’s goal for the two-game series? “I hope that everyone has a good memory that Ohio State came to Windsor,” he said. “I hope it’s a good experience for our community and our players. At the end of the day, I said to our players, ‘I hope you can remember that you lost by 50 to Ohio State, but you got better throughout the year to the point where you can win an Ontario championship or a national championship. We certainly haven’t lost that opportunity. That’s the good thing about playing this early.”