Like his football coaching counterpart, Ohio State basketball coach Thad Matta uses the word "juice" when he wants extra energy. It's a common term when his team needs some kind of lift.
In Wednesday night's 97-43 rout of visiting High Point, the bench of the Buckeyes certainly brought some of that juice. Specifically, though, it was Kam Williams who brought it most as the redshirt freshman from Baltimore poured in a career-high 23 points, connecting on 8 of his 10 shot attempts and 4 of 5 from behind the 3-point line.
"He just told us to relax and everything is going to fall into place if we bring the juice —that’s his word, juice," Williams said. "Like I said before, if we all just bring energy we are going to feed off of one another, it we all bring that juice and that toughness that Jae’Sean (Tate) referenced, there is no limit to what this team can accomplish.”
Entering Wednesday's game Matta said the Panthers (6-3) would present a challenge for his 12th-ranked Buckeyes. But it quickly got out of hand as Williams scored 13-straight points for Ohio State in the first half, giving the Buckeyes a commanding 43-24 lead at halftime.
The second half was more of the same, as Ohio State was simply too much to handle both inside and outside, outscoring High Point 54-19 over the game's final 20 minutes.
“Every week I feel like this team is getting better every single day in practice," said Tate, who scored 12 points off the bench for the Buckeyes, all of which came in the second half. "We had a great week of competing. When we do that, it shows in the game. We came out here and we handled our business."
Williams and Tate combined to score 35 points off the bench for Ohio State, which had 51 bench points as a team. In addition to the two freshmen, Sam Thompson (10 points), Shannon Scott (11 points, 7 assists) and D'Angelo Russell also scored in double figures. Russell quietly filled up the stat sheet with an 18-point, nine-rebound, five-assist performance.
“It’s something that you hope can continue," Matta said. "We’re going to play games where maybe we don’t have as many possessions or whatever, but the more balance I think you have as a basketball team the better you can become down the stretch. Without question, getting five guys in double figures, almost six, is something as a coach it excites you."
And another thing that had Matta excited was the play of Williams, who seems to be instant offense for this Ohio State team any time he steps out onto the floor.
It may come as a surprise to some Buckeye fans to see a team or player shoot at such a high level, but it certainly didn't catch Williams off guard.
“It wasn’t really shocking to me, because that’s what I’ve been doing all my life," he said. "Last year was just a minor setback, but all my life that’s what I’ve been known to do, put the ball in the bucket and that’s something that I’ve always had a knack for, so to me it wasn’t really a surprise.”
Added Tate: “He does that every day.”
If he continues to do so, the Buckeyes may have found themselves a secret weapon of sorts.
