Ohio St. wins shootout with long-bomb rival

The Buckeyes won, 92-83, despite UMBC’s school-
record 17 3-point goals.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Getting into a shootout with Maryland-Baltimore County was fine as far as Ohio State’s Jamar Butler was concerned.

Butler scored 22 points and had a career-best 12 assists and freshman Evan Turner had 17 points in Ohio State’s 92-83 victory, despite a school-record 17 3-pointers by the Retrievers.

Ray Barbosa led the Retrievers (8-5) with 22 of his game-high 32 points in the second half and junior Jay Greene added 14. Barbosa hit six of nine from beyond the 3-point line in the second half to keep UMBC close and finished with a school-record eight three-pointers in 14 attempts.

“When we’re making them, yeah. Not when they are,” Butler said when asked if he liked all of the 3-point shooting. “(Barbosa) was hitting tough shots. I was hoping he was going to miss.”

Barbosa said he recently had lost his shooting touch.

“I just found my shot. I had been in a slump lately,” Barbosa said.

The Buckeyes (9-3) won their fifth straight game. They got five 3-pointers from Jon Diebler, 13 points by Othello Hunter and 12 points and 12 rebounds from Kosta Koufos.

The Buckeyes (9-3) built a 75-58 lead with 7:15 to play but Barbosa got the Retrievers close when he made a pair of 3s with about two minutes left, cutting Ohio State’s lead to 79-72.

Turner and UMBC’s Darryl Proctor exchanged baskets before Hunter scored off a feed from Butler. Barbosa then hit another 3-pointer to make it 83-77 with 1:33 to play before Ohio State made six straight free throws.

UMBC made 17 of 35 (48 percent) 3-pointers but was four of 10 from the free throw line, while the Buckeyes made 10 of 23 (43 percent) 3-pointers and hit 26 of 31 (83 percent) foul shots.

“We were terrific in the second half,” UMBC coach Randy Monroe said. “Our guys wouldn’t quit. Even though we came up short, we came up winners.”