[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Canton

Buckeyes smash Eastern Ky. in basketball
Saturday, November 18, 2006

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Defense and Daequan Cook were a pretty good tandem for No. 5 Ohio State.



The Buckeyes forced 26 turnovers and freshman sub Cook scored 22 points in a 74-45 victory over Eastern Kentucky on Friday night.


"My teammates got me some wide-open shots and I knocked 'em down," said Cook, who hit his first seven shots for the Buckeyes (4-0).


Over the first 7 1/2 minutes, Eastern Kentucky (2-1) scored 15 points while hitting seven of its eight shots from the field with only one turnover. The Colonels then scored two points over the next 9 minutes, making one of seven shots with 10 turnovers.


"Our team came out and executed very well to start both halves," Eastern Kentucky coach Jeff Neubauer said. "It's once we got into the flow that we got a little bit rattled. They did apply more pressure as the game went on and that created quite a few more turnovers."


The Colonels averaged 11 turnovers in their first two wins.


"We knew coming into tonight's game that we wanted to dictate the tempo," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. "For the most part we did a good job of playing sound defense."



Cook scored 12 points in his first 7 minutes then added five more in a 20-2 run that gave Ohio State a 35-17 lead. The Buckeyes made 17 of 24 shots from the field in the first half, including 5 of 10 from behind the arc.


Cook had 16 points in the opening half as the Buckeyes built a 43-23 advantage.


There was a festive atmosphere in the sellout crowd. Many of the fans seemed to be building up steam for the football clash on Saturday between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Michigan at nearby Ohio Stadium.


The Buckeyes wore gray uniforms for the first time in 10 years.

"I told them during the first timeout that those uniforms are going back if they didn't start playing defense," Matta said with a laugh.