Thursday, January 27, 2005
The loss at Ohio State was the Nittany Lions' 27th straight Big Ten road defeat.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- A Pennsylvania native put it to Penn State.
Beaver Falls favorite son Brandon Fuss-Cheatham more than doubled his average with 15 points to help Ohio State to a 68-62 win over Penn State on Wednesday night, handing the Nittany Lions their 27th consecutive Big Ten road loss.
Fuss-Cheatham was asked if the Penn State game means more to him than others.
"If it was Pittsburgh maybe, but Penn State is a little farther away," he said with a grin. "It's always good to play well against a school from your state."
Stockman leads OSU
Tony Stockman, scoreless in his last home game, led the Buckeyes (13-7, 2-4 Big Ten) with 17 points. Je'Kel Foster added 14 points, hitting 4-of-5 3-pointers. J.J. Sullinger chipped in with 10 points for Ohio State, which ended a four-game losing skid.
Terence Dials, Ohio State's leading scorer at 16.4 points a game, was held to five points in his head-to-head struggle underneath with Johnson.
Geary Claxton scored 18 points and Mike Walker had 12 for the Nittany Lions (7-12, 1-5) , who have lost six of seven.
Aaron Johnson, leading the Big Ten in rebounding, had 13 rebounds but hit just one of his nine shots from the field and scored three points.
Penn State cut a 15-point Ohio State lead to four on Ben Luber's 3-pointer with 8:06 remaining before the Buckeyes countered with a Fuss-Cheatham jumper and Foster's fourth 3 of the game to make it 57-48. The Nittany Lions cut the lead to 60-54 on Danny Morrissey's long 3-pointer, but Fuss-Cheatham's shot behind the arc at the 3:04 mark pushed the lead back to nine points. It never fell below that until the final minute.
"Fuss-Cheatham made a big 3," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. "That's the chance you take. We didn't want Dials to beat us, but Fuss-Cheatham stepped up as a senior and made the big shot."
Long-range bomber
Fuss-Cheatham, averaging 6.1 points a game, hit 6-of-11 shots from the field including 3-of-5 3-pointers. He came into the game having made only four 3-pointers in Ohio State's five previous Big Ten games.
"It seemed like they left me open a lot," said Fuss-Cheatham, a 41 percent free throw shooter who has had difficulty throughout his career making perimeter shots. "I take that personal. I don't think this has been like the last three years. Guys could definitely leave me and maybe the shots weren't going down. But this year I don't think they can do that. When guys leave me I want to hit them with a dagger."
Stockman scored 11 points in the first half as the Buckeyes built a 37-26 lead. Penn State missed its first seven shots from the field and trailed 11-1 before Johnson scored inside for the Nittany Lions' first field goal, almost 51/2 minutes in.
A 6-0 run brought the Lions as close as 22-16 before Stockman hit a 3-pointer and Foster made two more on consecutive possessions for a 31-18 lead.
"It's good to be back on the winning side," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. "I feel great compared to the way I've felt recently."