OSU rides Sullinger to No. 1 seed

Sullinger leads Buckeyes over Penn State for Big Ten title

By Bob Baptist

The Columbus Dispatch

INDIANAPOLIS

Taking his team into a Big Ten tournament championship game for the fifth time in six years, Ohio State coach Thad Matta was the voice of experience in telling his players what he did on the eve of the game Saturday night.

With the Buckeyes to play their third game in three days, and Penn State its fourth in four, “I told them there was going to be a point where somebody broke,” Matta said, “and we had to withstand it, and we had to break them.”

It happened in the first seven minutes of the second half Sunday in Conseco Fieldhouse.

After Jon Diebler’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer gave the Buckeyes a six-point lead at halftime, he opened the second half with another, starting a 17-6 run that William Buford and Aaron Craft capped with their own 3s 38 seconds apart.

The burst put Penn State in a 17-point hole, and the top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Buckeyes went on to win, 71-60, and become only the second team to win back-to-back Big Ten tournament championships.

William Buford scored 18 points and Diebler 15, and Jared Sullinger had 15 points and 11 rebounds to lead Ohio State (32-2), which later received the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament.

The Buckeyes will play Friday in Cleveland against either Texas-San Antonio or Alabama State.

‘This is a very exciting time for us,’ said Diebler, one of three seniors in the starting lineup. ‘This was one of our goals when we met in the summer, to come out and first of all win the [Big Ten] regular season, then to win the Big Ten tournament. We’re happy we accomplished this. We’re going to enjoy it tonight and then get back to work.’

Talor Battle scored 24 points and Jeff Brooks 19 for Penn State (19-14), the No. 6 seed that was trying to become just the second tournament champion to win four games in four days.

Battle said Diebler’s half-ending 3 was the turning point.

“I thought we defended him pretty well,” Battle said. “We were scrambling, I was right there in his face, and he just knocked it in. It took the lead from three to six and gave them a little momentum going into the half. Then he buries one right at the start of the second half [and] I think we ran out of gas.”

The Nittany Lions made four 3-pointers in the next 71/2 minutes to reduce their deficit to 57-47 with 5:01 left, but they did not get closer until the final seconds.

Ohio State became the only team other than Michigan State in 1999 and 2000 to win consecutive Big Ten tournament championships. The Spartans won the national championship in 2000.

“Any time you come into a three-game tournament or a three-day tournament, it’s survive and advance,” Matta said. “I thought our guys did a tremendous job of weathering the storm of Penn State’s runs at us. We made the plays we had to make and we were able to open it up.”

Sullinger was voted the tournament’s most outstanding player after totaling 49 points and 42 rebounds in three games. He is the first player in the tournament’s 14 years to have three double-doubles.

He was joined on the all-tournament team by Buford, Diebler, Battle, Michael Thompson of Northwestern and Kalin Lucas of Michigan State.

Sullinger’s shot was off throughout the tournament — and he still dominated.

Sullinger made just 12 of 36 field goals in the tournament, but averaged 16.3 points and 14 rebounds. Sullinger made up for his poor shooting by setting a tournament record with 38 free throw attempts in three games.

“It’s just Jared,” Ohio State guard David Lighty said. “He can affect the game without scoring. Especially shooting 15 free throws a game. He’s knocking those down and getting every rebound that’s around him. You really can’t stop that.”

Information from The Associated Press was included in this report.