COLUMBUS (AP) -- Ohio State coach Jim O'Brien acted up and his players woke up.

COLUMBUS (AP) -- Ohio State coach Jim O'Brien acted up and his players woke up.
Sean Connolly scored eight points in a 21-6 first-half run after O'Brien intentionally picked up a technical, then made several key plays as Ohio State pulled away in the second half to beat Seton Hall 71-54 Saturday night.
"I didn't like the way it was going, so I needed to act up a little," O'Brien said.
Connolly finished with 22 points as the Buckeyes improved to 4-3. Their losses have come to three of the top four teams in the most recent rankings: Alabama, Duke and Pittsburgh.
Connolly's output was his most since transferring to Ohio State. His career best was 24 points as a freshman at Providence.
"Once I hit a couple of 3's, I started getting more aggressive," Connolly said. "Guys were setting good screens to get me free."
Andre Barrett had 18 points for Seton Hall (3-3), which has lost three of four meetings with the Buckeyes.
O'Brien earned a technical foul at the 12:32 mark of the first half while protesting an offensive foul against Zach Williams -- and the Buckeyes promptly pulled away.
"He did it on purpose. Some times he does things to get us fired up and to get us to compete out there," Williams said. "To see him upset like that and getting into it, as a player it makes you want to play that much harder."
The crowd came to life and so did the Buckeyes.
"The technical let us know he was into the game -- probably more than we were," Connolly said.
The Buckeyes turned a 13-11 advantage into a 34-16 lead with just under 2 minutes left in the half. In addition to Connolly's eight points, Matt Sylvester came off the bench to add six points.
The Pirates scored the final six points of the half to trail 34-22 at the break.
Connolly opened the second half with a 3-pointer and after the Pirates scored two baskets, Williams scored inside, Connolly hit two free throws, stole a pass and then assisted on another Williams layup as the Buckeyes streaked to a 43-26 lead by the 15:42 mark.
Connolly, who hit 4 of 7 3-point attempts, later added five points in a 7-0 run that swelled the lead to 59-41. The spurt was helped along by a technical called on Seton Hall's John Allen for kicking an Ohio State player during a scramble for a loose ball.
Velimir Radinovic, filling in for Terence Dials who missed the game with back spasms, scored 13 points. Williams also had 13 points and leading-scorer Brent Darby added 12 -- 6 under his season average.
"We wanted to try to not let Darby have a big game," Seton Hall coach Louis Orr said. "I thought we did a good job of that, but their big guys -- Williams and Radinovic -- did well and Sean Connolly played really well."
Kelly Whitney had 12 points for Seton Hall, which lost its second in a row.
Sylvester and Darby fouled out for Ohio State, as did Whitney, Greg Morton and Donald Copeland for the Pirates. The teams combined for 50 fouls and 59 free throws.
O'Brien had showed the Buckeyes clippings from the Pittsburgh newspapers after the Buckeyes were beaten 69-49 by the Panthers on Wednesday night.
"The guys in Pittsburgh took major, major shots at us," O'Brien said. "I think our guys responded."