Foster leads Buckeyes to victory

His 24 points and 10 rebounds paced the 81-74 win over Saint Joseph's.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- With their leading scorer held to just five points, Ohio State needed a career game from Je'Kel Foster and hot first-half shooting to hold off Saint Joseph's.
The Buckeyes hit their first seven 3-point attempts to build a big early lead and then survived a second-half rally by Saint Joseph's to beat the Hawks 81-74 Saturday afternoon at the Palestra.
Foster set career highs with 24 points and 10 rebounds for Ohio State and the Buckeyes (4-0) were 7-for-7 from behind the arc with five different players hitting from long range to open the game.
The last 3-pointer of that stretch -- by Jamar Butler less than 10 minutes in -- gave Ohio State a 25-10 lead and caused Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli to throw up his hands in frustration.
"We were fortunate to hit some shots early and get the lead up," said Buckeyes' coach Thad Matta.
Dials held to five points
Ohio State won despite only five points on just three shots from leading scorer Terence Dials, who entered the game averaging 15.3 points per game. Dials had scored 24 points and grabbed 10 boards in a 72-61 win over the Hawks a year ago.
The Buckeyes' lead reached 43-25 on a 3-pointer by Foster early in the second half before Saint Joseph's rallied. But each time the Hawks drew close, the Buckeyes responded.
Saint Joseph's (4-2) trailed 70-66 after Abdulai Jalloh's layup with 1:03 to play. But on the ensuing inbound play Matt Sylvester hit Lewis -- who scored all 14 of his points after intermission -- with a full-court pass for a dunk. Lewis was fouled and the three-point play gave OSU a 73-66 lead.
Earlier, the Hawks pulled to 51-46 on a 3-pointer by Dwayne Lee midway through the second half. But Lewis hit a 3-pointer of his own from the left wing and J.J. Sullinger leaped high for an offensive rebound, then converted a three-point play to build the lead back to 57-46.
"The biggest disappointment for me is that [Friday] night was one of the best practices I've seen in my time here," Martelli said. "Then to come out and defend like that irks me to no end. There was no redeeming value in this game for us."
"Not one of our players can leave here with their head high thinking they played well," Martelli said.
Made 21 turnovers
The Buckeyes also scored 81 points despite 21 turnovers, making up the difference by hitting 11-of-19 from beyond the 3-point line, while limiting Saint Joseph's to just 36.9 percent (24-for-65) for the game.
Foster, who is shooting 72.7 percent (24 for 33) from the floor this season, picked up most of the slack.
"I knew we had to have rebounds, so I was going to the boards more," Foster said.
Jalloh led the Hawks with a career-high 30 points, while Sullinger played tremendous defense against Saint Joseph's leading scorer, Chet Stachitas. Stachitas was held to one field goal and nine points, less than half his average of 19.8 points per game.
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