Ohio State men crush overmatched Huskies

COLUMBUS (AP) — Is Ohio State getting better or was it just an overmatched opponent?

Freshman William Buford scored a career-high 19 points and the Buckeyes pressured and fastbreaked past road-weary Houston Baptist 89-65 on Friday night.

Even the Huskies coach said it was hard to tell how much of the blowout was Ohio State’s doing and how much of it could be attributed to a struggling team trying to make the jump from NAIA to Division I.

“When you’re 1-16, yeah, you’ve had a lot of teams get hot on you during the year,” Houston Baptist coach Ron Cottrell cracked.

Evan Turner added 15 points and B.J. Mullens and Jeremie Simmons each had 12 for the Buckeyes (11-3), who had lost three of their last four after opening 9-0 and climbing to No. 15 in the Associated Press Top 25.

The Buckeyes shot 56 percent from the field.

“I hope that it’s a stepping stone,” coach Thad Matta said.

Gordon Watt, a transfer from Purdue, had 28 points, and Andrew Puzyk added 18 for Houston Baptist, which lost its second in a row since beating Howard on Dec. 31. The Huskies, now in their second year of transition to Division I, opened the season with 14 losses.

They were playing their fifth straight road game and are in the midst of playing eight of nine away from home.

The Buckeyes scored nine of the first 10 points, holding the Huskies to one field goal in the first 4:20. By then, the lead was already 18-5, with Buford — starting his sixth game in place of the injured David Lighty — accounting for 11 points.

“I was a little hot today, I was knocking them down,” said Buford, a Toledo native who was Ohio’s Mr. Basketball last March. “They kept leaving me open, so I was just taking my shots.”

He flashed across the lane for a short jumper in traffic and was fouled, opening the scoring with the three-point play. After Simmons hit a 3-pointer, Buford hit consecutive 3s from almost the same spot on the floor to make it 12-2. A dunk by Turner, a hook by Dallas Lauderdale and two free throws by Buford pushed the lead to 18-5. Ohio State then closed the half on a 14-4 run to build a 55-26 advantage.

“We were trying to get better on offense, move the ball a lot more and knock down the open shots and I think we did that,” Simmons said.