Monday, February 07, 2000
Ohio State 88, Michigan 67
Reese, Redd each net 25
The Associated Press
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Ohio State coach Jim O'Brien wanted George Reese to be more aggressive. Reese took him seriously.
Reese, thriving in his role as sixth man, scored a career-high 25 points, and the Buckeyes rolled to their eighth straight win, 88-67 Sunday over Michigan on Sunday.
“I'm very, very happy with our team,” O'Brien said. “This is one of our better efforts, offensively. The thing I'm most pleased with was how efficient we were on offense. I thought we did a good job of exploiting matchup problems.”
One of those matchups had Michigan freshman LaVell Blanchard guarding Reese, a senior.
“He's as big as Reese, but I think Reese had a little edge with his experience,” O'Brien said.
Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe agreed that putting a freshman on Reese was asking a lot.
“We knew how good he is,” Ellerbe said. “I think he's probably the most improved player in the league. It's just a tough matchup.”
Michael Redd also scored 25 points, 20 in the first half when the No. 5 Buckeyes (16-3, 7-1 Big Ten) raced to a 47-32 lead, thanks in large part to 12 first-half Michigan turnovers and six Ohio State steals.
“We wanted to come out and jump on them early,” Redd said. “Our defense was doing a nice job and that opened up a few shots for me.”
The Wolverines (12-7, 3-5), who lost their fourth straight, finished with 16 turnovers and had the ball stolen nine times.
“Our defense came up big,” said Scoonie Penn, who had 13 points and five assists for the Buckeyes. “That's been a priority for us all season. Our defense got our offense going.”
Blanchard scored 21 points and Josh Asselin added 15 for Michigan.
The game was tied at 14 when a dunk by Reese triggered a 15-4 Ohio State burst. Reese, who had six points during the run, gave the Buckeyes a 29-18 lead on a layup with 7:06 left in the half.
The predominately freshmen Wolverines, coming off an 82-62 loss Tuesday night to Michigan State, never were in synch during the first 20 minutes. Just bringing the ball up the court became a chore for Michigan, despite only a moderate press by the Buckeyes.
Ellerbe said he liked the Buckeyes chances of making a repeat trip to the Final Four.
“Obviously, Penn and Redd are very good players and Ken Johnson is a factor defensively,” Ellerbe said. “But I'm equally impressed with Brian Brown and George Reese.
“They have a really good team with a lot of good parts, and they could go really far.”
OHIO ST (88)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Redd 30 9-18 4-4 1-5 2 4 25
Ocokoljic 8 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 1 0
Johnson 32 4-7 1-2 3-5 1 4 9
Penn 31 5-10 2-2 0-6 5 2 13
Brown 26 2-6 2-2 1-4 4 1 7
Darby 20 3-5 0-0 0-0 1 3 6
Robinson 11 0-1 1-2 2-4 1 1 1
Smith 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Steele 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Reese 30 9-13 7-8 2-4 2 3 25
Dudley 8 1-2 0-2 0-1 0 0 2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 33-62 17-22 9-30 17 19 88
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.532, FT-.773. 3-Point Goals:
5-16, .313 (Redd 3-8, Penn 1-5, Brown 1-1, Darby
0-2). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 6 (Johnson
5, Reese). Turnovers: 8 (Reese 3, Brown, Johnson,
Ocokoljic, Penn, Robinson). Steals: 9 (Brown 3,
Penn 2, Dudley, Ocokoljic, Redd, Robinson).
MICHIGAN (67)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Blanchard 35 8-16 3-4 1-9 1 1 21
Smith 18 2-7 0-0 2-4 0 3 5
Asselin 22 6-13 3-4 6-7 1 3 15
Gaines 34 2-7 2-5 1-1 6 4 6
Groninger 19 2-7 0-0 0-1 0 0 5
Jones 24 2-4 2-3 0-0 0 2 7
Taylor 5 0-1 0-0 1-1 0 1 0
Hunter 7 0-2 0-0 0-2 0 0 0
Young 21 1-3 3-4 2-6 0 1 5
Anderson 9 0-1 1-2 0-0 0 1 1
Vignier 6 0-2 2-2 1-5 0 0 2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 23-63 16-24 14-36 8 16 67
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.365, FT-.667. 3-Point Goals:
5-18, .278 (Blanchard 2-5, Smith 1-3, Gaines 0-3,
Groninger 1-4, Jones 1-2, Hunter 0-1). Team
rebounds: 5. Blocked shots: 3 (Blanchard 2,
Asselin). Turnovers: 16 (Anderson 3, Gaines 3,
Smith 3, Asselin 2, Blanchard 2, Jones 2, Young).
Steals: 3 (Anderson, Asselin, Groninger).
__________________________________
Ohio St 47 41 - 88
Michigan 32 35 - 67
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None. A: 13,562. Officials: Ed
Hightower, Jody Silvester, Donnie Gray.
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