No. 1 Buckeyes Pound Gophers 82-69
February 6, 2011

The unbeaten and top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes demonstrated their dominance with an 82-69 win over the Minnesota Gophers at Williams Arena.

The game featured a matchup of the Big Ten’s leading rebounders, junior Trevor Mbakwe of Minnesota and Ohio State freshman Jared Sullinger. It was Sullinger who prevailed scoring 18 points to go with 13 rebounds, 8 offensively. “He’s a beast,” said Minnesota coach Tubby Smith. Sullinger’s coach, Thad Motta, commented on his “deceiving strength, high motor, and body control when getting hit.”

Sullinger helped the Buckeyes to command on the boards in the first half, when the Buckeye’s outrebounded the Gophers 23-15. Ohio State ended the game with a 39-33 edge in that department, getting 22 offensive rebounds.

Turnovers also plagued the Gophers, who gave up the ball 19 times to only 8 for the Buckeyes. Twelve of the turnovers came from Mbakwe, Ralph Sampson, and Colton Iverson. “You can’t play basketall with your big men turning it over like that,” said Smith.

The teams swapped baskets in the opening minutes, with Minnesota taking a 4-2 lead. The Buckeyes then ran off 7 straight points, and the Gophers never caught up. Ohio State opened up a 12-point lead, but slowed down a bit against a Minnesota zone defense and carried a 38-30 lead into halftime.

The Gophers came out with a man-to-man defense in the second half and cut the lead to 5, but Ohio State center Dallas Lauderdale, held scoreless in the first half, scored the first three baskets for the Buckeyes in the second half to make the score 44-35. “When you’re down, it’s hard to go to a zone,” said Smith. “You’re in retreat mode.”

Smith said the Gophers made bad decisions on defense, particularly with switches that allowed Lauderdale to get open underneath the basket, after having closed the gap.

The Buckeyes were hampered by poor free-throw shooting, particularly by Sullinger, who was only 2-for-8 from the line. Ohio State made only 50 percent of its free throws (10 for 20) and shot more poorly from the field than the Gophers, who made 51 percent of their field-goal attempts. However, the Buckeyes took 71 shots in the game to only 49 for the Gophers, a result of the turnovers and the rebounding advantage of the Buckeyes. In addition, Ohio State was hot from the outside, making 8 of 20 three-point attempts.

Sampson scored 14 points in the first half but came up empty after that. Motta said the Buckeyes didn’t do anything differently with Sampson in the second half, other than playing a little better on their weak-side defense. It was freshman Chip Armelin, off the bench, who provided a spark for the Gophers, scoring 12 of his 14 points in the second half. Smith praised Armelin for having only 1 turnover, the same total as another freshman, Austin Hollins, who is in the starting lineup because of a season-ending foot injury to point-guard Al Nolen.

The Buckeyes have retained their number-1 ranking in the country by staying undefeated, although they had a pair of challenging games, against Northwestern and Michigan, in the past week. Motta said his team knew the challenge they were facing by playing the Gophers in Williams Arena and responded with good mentality. “We knew we had to match their energy, their intensity.”

All five Ohio State starters scored in double figures. In addition to Sullinger’s 18 points, Lauderdale and Jon Diebler each had 10, David Lighty 19, and William Buford 15. Hoffarber was Minnesota’s leading scorer with 16.

Gopher Holes: At halftime, Minnesota retired the number 53 in honor of Dick Garmaker, a consensus All-American for the Gophers in 1954-55. The other men’s players who have had their numbers retired by the Gophers are Lou Hudson, Mychal Thompson, Trent Tucker, Charley Mencel, Kevin McHale, Jim Brewer, and Whitey Skoog.

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