Buckeyes Roll Past Huskies, 89-65

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Is Ohio State getting better or was it just an overmatched opponent?

Freshman William Buford scored a career-high 19 points and the Buckeyes pressured and fastbreaked past road-weary Houston Baptist 89-65 on Friday night.

Even the Huskies coach said it was hard to tell how much of the blowout was Ohio State's doing and how much of it could be attributed to a struggling team trying to make the jump from NAIA to Division I.

"When you're 1-16, yeah, you've had a lot of teams get hot on you during the year," Houston Baptist coach Ron Cottrell cracked.

Evan Turner added 15 points and B.J. Mullens and Jeremie Simmons each had 12 for the Buckeyes (11-3), who had lost three of their last four after opening 9-0 and climbing to No. 15 in the Associated Press Top 25.

The Buckeyes shot 56 percent from the field.

"I hope that it's a stepping stone," coach Thad Matta said.

Gordon Watt, a transfer from Purdue, had 28 points, and Andrew Puzyk added 18 for Houston Baptist, which lost its second in a row since beating Howard on Dec. 31. The Huskies, now in their second year of transition to Division I, opened the season with 14 losses.

They were playing their fifth straight road game and are in the midst of playing eight of nine away from home.

The Buckeyes scored nine of the first 10 points, holding the Huskies to one field goal in the first 4:20. By then, the lead was already 18-5, with Buford - starting his sixth game in place of the injured David Lighty - accounting for 11 points.

"I was a little hot today, I was knocking them down," said Buford, a Toledo native who was Ohio's Mr. Basketball last March. "They kept leaving me open, so I was just taking my shots."

He flashed across the lane for a short jumper in traffic and was fouled, opening the scoring with the three-point play. After Simmons hit a 3-pointer, Buford hit consecutive 3s from almost the same spot on the floor to make it 12-2. A dunk by Turner, a hook by Dallas Lauderdale and two free throws by Buford pushed the lead to 18-5.

Ohio State then closed the half on a 14-4 run to build a 55-26 advantage.

"We were trying to get better on offense, move the ball a lot more and knock down the open shots and I think we did that," Simmons said.

Houston Baptist has played a treacherous schedule. Cottrell put the Buckeyes up with everybody his team has played.

"Villanova was very good. Their guards can shoot as good as anybody. Marquette's guards are as good as any we've seen as well," he said. "But certainly tonight, the way the Buckeye guys shot the ball, they could compete with any of those teams in terms of perimeter scoring. And the inside game that Thad's got is as good as we've seen."

Buford then hit two more 3-pointers to open the second half, boosting the lead to 35 points. The lead never fell below 23 again.

In their three losses, the Buckeyes had shot 36 percent from the field and 25 percent from behind the arc. In their previous 10 wins, they had made 47 percent of their shots from the field and 37 percent of their 3-pointers.

Simmons' 11 points were also a career-high, as were his eight assists. The Buckeyes had 25 assists on their 32 baskets - after totaling just three assists in the lopsided 76-48 home loss to West Virginia on Dec. 27.

"That was a big thing for us," Matta said of the assists. "That's been an area where we've got to continue to hone in on and get better. ... There were some passes that we threw that we wouldn't have made a week ago."

Nicola Kecman, like Simmons a junior-college transfer, played his first game for Ohio State and had six points and five rebounds.

Ten players scored, seven had assists and 10 had rebounds. Regardless of the opponent, the Buckeyes chose to focus on the positives.

"We've been working real hard in practice to try to come out and play aggressive on offense," Buford said. "And it paid off today in the game."