NIT Final Four (semi-final): Ohio State 81, Ole Miss 69 (Final)

[buckeyesin07]

This game was another that demonstrates how important matchups are in tournament games. Ole Miss just matched up poorly with OSU, considering their biggest starter is 6'8". In the first half, it was apparent that OSU could dominate the inside, as the Buckeyes dominated the rebounding margin and had what seemed like a ton of blocked shots. They therefore managed to outscore the Rebels by 20+ even though both teams were incredibly sloppy with handling the ball. This matchup was about as one-sided as the horrible matchup that OSU had against Georgetown in the 2006 tournament in which G'Town ran OSU out of the gym.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Great balance for the Buckeyes last night.......suprising effort on the boards.....our size really hurt them.......basically we played one half of this game and then coasted the second half...........great win and another step for this team.......I thought Turner and Koufos were very good last night.

Great win....bring on UMass.......

[BUCKYLE]

Originally Posted by OSUBasketballJunkie

Great balance for the Buckeyes last night.......suprising effort on the boards.....our size really hurt them.......basically we played one half of this game and then coasted the second half...........great win and another step for this team.......I thought Turner and Koufos were very good last night.

Great win....bring on UMass.......

[zincfinger]

Originally Posted by OSUBasketballJunkie

Great balance for the Buckeyes last night.......suprising effort on the boards.....our size really hurt them.......basically we played one half of this game and then coasted the second half...........great win and another step for this team.......I thought Turner and Koufos were very good last night.

Great win....bring on UMass.......

Agreed on the above. I also thought Dallas Lauderdale put in some quality minutes from the bench (with the caveat that I missed most of the second half). Ole Miss was a great matchup for him, because his forte, muscle on the boards, was a perfect counterbalance to their strength.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ozone

Men's Basketball
First Half Blitz Carries Buckeyes to NIT Final
By John Porentas
OK, maybe the Buckeyes (23-13) didn't play so well in the second half, but for a half against Mississippi (24-11) OSU played about as well as they have this season. Well enough that a second-half lapse didn't really matter, because it was game, match set when the first half ended and OSU was ticketed to the NIT final.
Ohio State jumped all over Ole Miss to take a 44-20 half time lead, then went on to cruise to an 81-69 win to advance to the final of the NIT tournament in Madison Square Garden. It was arguably the best half of basketball played by the Buckeyes this season.
"I think our press got to them and they turned the ball over a little bit, and when you turn the ball over it leads to easy baskets," said OSU senior point guard Jamar Butler.

"I thought P. J. did a tremendous job for us. He had a nice finish on the penetration and really brought great energy and gave us a boost on defense as well," said Matta.
Dallas has made tremendous progress at practice the last three weeks. We thought going into this game this was going to be a game where he could be a factor just because of his size and athleticism down there," Matta said of Lauderdale.

[BucyrusBuckeye]

As does everyone else I thought we played well the 1st half and coasted in the 2nd. I am happy with the win but a little disappointed in our lack of killer instinct. Nc would have scored over a hundred on Miss.