First Posted: 1/29/2015
COLUMBUS — Ohio State coach Thad Matta has been wondering about his team’s toughness.
Not anymore.
Marc Loving matched his career high with 19 points and D’Angelo Russell added 18 points and 14 rebounds to lead Ohio State to an 80-56 victory over No. 16 Maryland on Thursday night.
The Buckeyes (17-5, 6-3 Big Ten), at times a timid bunch on the boards this season, dominated the Terrapins (18-4, 6-3) on the glass (51-32) and on defense.
“We played tougher,” Matta said. “We were quick to the ball. For the most part, guys did what they were supposed to. We rebounded the ball well, we rebounded out of our area. We did a good job of the rotations defensively and walled guys up.”
The doubts now belong to the Terrapins.
“I guess we weren’t tough enough,” swingman Evan Smotrycz said. “It’s as simple as that.”
Coach Mark Turgeon added, “I don’t know if I’ve ever had a team get outrebounded like that. I’ll have to look. I doubt it.”
Jae’Sean Tate, starting his third game in a row, added 16 points and eight rebounds for the Buckeyes, who have won three in a row — including the last two over ranked opponents at home.
Loving was benched last week after a sorry defensive effort. He responded by hitting all five of his 3-pointers as the Buckeyes went 10 of 17 behind the arc.
“My role didn’t change,” he said of not starting. “It was a good night. I was able to knock some shots down.”
Russell, the nation’s leading freshman scorer, flirted with a triple-double. He also had six assists and two steals, and didn’t commit a turnover in 34 minutes.
He had an easy explanation for his rebounding.
“The ball bounces to me a lot,” he said. “That’s something that I decided to take upon myself, to rebound better as a 6-foot-5 guard. I’ve got to do something down there.”
Ahead by eight points at halftime thanks to a 12-0 run, the Buckeyes took control early in the second half.
Up 41-32 just 3 minutes in, the Buckeyes went on a rapid-fire 7-0 run. Later, Loving hit consecutive 3s to push the lead to 54-38 with under 14 minutes left, and Maryland never again threatened.
Dez Wells had 12 points and Jake Layman 10 for Maryland, which had won four of five.
ONE-SIDED DUEL
It was supposed to be a battle between two of the top freshmen in the Big Ten, if not the country. But Russell’s play easily eclipsed that of Maryland’s leading scorer, 6-foot-3 Melo Trimble, who came in averaging 16.3 points per game.
Trimble had a forgettable night. He missed all eight shots from the field, including four 3-pointers, and ended up with three points, one rebound and one assist.
“He’s a terrific player,” Matta said. “I’d like to say we had a lot to do with it, but he just sort of had one of those nights.”
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT
Russell, on Ohio State’s turnaround after splitting its first six conference games: “I credit the losses. I feel like the losses we had at the beginning of the year make us who we are now. Everybody brings what they’re supposed to. There’s no turning around. We just keep going forward and keep getting better every day.”
TIP-INS
Maryland: Balance is clearly one of the Terrapins’ strengths. Who do you want to stop? And what will it cost you? Maryland is the only team in the Big Ten with three players averaging 13.5 points or more per game. Trimble came in at 16.3, Layman at 14.3 and Wells at 13.6.
Compare that with Ohio State, which had only one player over that mark (Russell at 19.4 ppg).
Ohio State: It was the first Big Ten matchup between the teams, but they had met six previous times with Ohio State winning four.
The schools met in three consecutive seasons (1983-85), with the Buckeyes taking two. Terps All-American Len Bias, who died of a cocaine overdose in 1986 after being taken No. 2 overall in the NBA draft by the Boston Celtics, starred in all three, averaging 20.3 points and six rebounds.
UP NEXT
Maryland: The Terrapins, who alternate home and away until stringing together a second straight home game on Feb. 24, return to XFINITY Center to play Penn State on Wednesday.
Ohio State: The Buckeyes hit the road for four of their next five games, starting with a game at Purdue on Wednesday.
Cincinnati 70,
Connecticut 58
CINCINNATI — From the career-high point total to the glare on his face, Troy Caupain showed Connecticut that it was going to be different this time around.
The point guard scored a career-high 20 points on Thursday night before leaving with his second technical foul, and Cincinnati never trailed during a 70-58 victory over the sloppy Huskies to split the season series.
Cincinnati (15-5, 6-2 American Athletic) won its third in a row overall and improved to 12-1 at home this season.
“If you’re going to be in the race for the league, you’ve got to hold service at home,” associate head coach Larry Davis said. “You can’t lose. Our guys know that. They were not happy about our loss up there (at UConn) and the way we lost. So tonight they were ready for a little payback.”
Caupain made eight of his nine shots. He picked up his second technical for taunting with 2:24 to go and Cincinnati up by 14 points.
UConn (11-8, 4-3) won the teams’ first matchup in Connecticut on Jan. 10, with Ryan Boatright scoring 18 points in a 67-60 victory. The conference’s stingiest defense clamped down on him in the rematch and held him without a field goal until there was 12:56 left in the game.
“I kind of took that game real personal,” Caupain said. “He’s a great player and matchups like that — that’s what you come to college basketball for. Playing against Boatright and having a wonderful game were running through my mind in practice.”
Boatright, who leads the AAC in scoring at 16.5 points per game, finished with a flurry and wound up with 22 points on 6-of-17 shooting. UConn turned it over 17 times and shot only 33 percent from the field overall.
“You know, it was just everything,” coach Kevin Ollie said. “It is just a broken record. We have to be tough in an atmosphere like this.
“You try to establish something in the first five minutes and we didn’t. It just snowballed after that.”
The Bearcats opened the game with a 7-0 run as the Huskies came out slow and sloppy, turning the ball over on four of their first five possessions. They had 13 turnovers in the first half alone. Boatright missed all six of his field goal tries and managed only a pair of free throws in the half, which ended with Cincinnati ahead 30-22.
A 3-pointer by Caupain pushed it to 39-26. UConn didn’t get closer than eight points the rest of the way.
TWO T’s
Caupain got his first technical for going nose-to-nose with Rodney Purvis after getting fouled in the second half. Purvis also got a technical. Caupain’s second was for taunting as he ran up the floor after a Cincinnati basket, although the guard claimed he was yelling to a teammate.
CLARK MUCH BETTER
Cincinnati forward Gary Clark managed only two points and five rebounds in the game at UConn. He had 12 points and 10 rebounds in the rematch.
TIP-INS
Connecticut: In the three previous games, UConn had shot better from beyond arc than from inside it. The Huskies had trouble making a shot from anywhere on Thursday and went 8 of 26 from beyond the arc.
Cincinnati: The Bearcats are 8-3 since coach Mick Cronin was sidelined by a problem with a blood vessel in the back of his head, which will prevent him from coaching games or practice this season.
UP NEXT
Connecticut plays at Houston on Sunday, then returns home against East Carolina on Wednesday.
Cincinnati is on the road for its next two games, at East Carolina on Sunday and at Southern Methodist on Thursday.
UMass 66, Dayton 64
AMHERST, Mass. — Cady Lalanne had 18 points, Trey Davis scored 15 including two free throws with 15 seconds left and Massachusetts beat Dayton 66-64 on Thursday night.
Davis’ free throws gave UMass (11-9, 4-3 Atlantic 10) a 66-61 lead and Dayton’s Darrell Davis hit a 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left. Play was stopped for a few minutes after Trey Davis blasted head-first into a screen at midcourt and needed to be helped off the court.
Donte Clark then missed the front end of a 1-and-1 for UMass with 2.1 seconds left and Jabarie Hinds sealed the win, blocking Kendall Pollard’s desperation heave.
Jordan Sibert had 19 points and Pollard added 12 for Dayton (16-4, 6-2), which twice had the ball down by three in the final two minutes.
The Flyers closed within 46-45 with 15 minutes left before the Minutemen pulled away with an 11-3 run over the next eight minutes.
