Buckeyes miss 17 of first 18 from the field in second half
NEW YORK -- There was some conjecture after a win Wednesday over No. 21 Syracuse that the Ohio State men's basketball team deserved to be ranked. Orange coach Jim Boeheim even said the Buckeyes were a top-25 team.
They might be. But they're not No. 16. Not close.
Texas A&M had that ranking last night entering the final of the NIT Season Tip-Off and put a men-vs.-boys beatdown on the young Buckeyes.
The Aggies built a six-point halftime lead by getting Kosta Koufos and Othello Hunter in foul trouble and ran off to a 70-47 victory in the second half as the Buckeyes went cold in Madison Square Garden. They missed 17 of their first 18 shots from the field and trailed by as many as 32 points late in the game.
"Whatever could go wrong tonight went wrong," coach Thad Matta said. "I've seen these games before. Fortunately, I haven't been a part of too many of them. Tonight, I was."
It was Ohio State's largest margin of defeat since an 86-60 loss at Florida last season, Matta's worst as a coach.
The Buckeyes (3-1) shot 24.6 percent from the field. Jamar Butler, who had 17 points, had six of their 14 field goals. The rest of the team was 8 of 44 from the field. Hunter, David Lighty and Jon Diebler were 1 of 23.
Texas A&M shot 52.7 percent.
"I'm not taking anything away from Texas A&M, but we could not put the ball in," Matta said. "And what happened is, we began to tie the offensive end to the defensive end and they really just blitzed us.
"I think that's the sign of a young basketball team. We just did not have the juice we needed. … And that's a veteran basketball team that was on the verge of the Final Four. They've been in the trenches."
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