Greg Oden scored 29 points on 12-13 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds leading Ohio State to an 82-63 victory over the Hawkeyes that marked the 20th in a row at Value City Arena. Ron Lewis added 12 points and Daequan Cook rose from the dead with 11 points (4-6 FG) and 7 rebounds in 21 minutes of action. Mike Conley was Mike Conley with 8 points, 10 assists and 4 steals. Even considering those numbers, Conley’s biggest contribution might have been his elbow to the face of Iowa’s 7’0†center Seth Gorney on a charge in the waning seconds of the first half. Gorney did not return and Oden took advantage of backups Kurt Looby and Cyrus Tate with 18 second half points. The Manchild drew three fouls on Looby in the first 60 seconds and eventually fouled out Tate as OSU continuously fed the big guy inside.
Iowa managed to cut the Buckeye lead to 54-50 on a Tyler Smith three with 11:11 left but OSU responded with a 21-2 blitz to take a commanding 75-52 lead with just under five minutes remaining. Oden had 4 dunks (9 points) and Iowa shot just 1-10 during the run. The Big11Ten’s leading scorer, Adam Haluska, was held to 15 points and didn’t score in the final 16 minutes while OSU shot a blistering 68% in the second half.
OSU was again impressive from the line, shooting 14-17 (82%) and the Bucks have now made 46-52 free throws in the last three games, good for 88%. Pretty amazing when you consider OSU was shooting just 68% as a team prior to this stretch. The Buckeyes did allow Iowa to shoot 48% for the game and the transition defense was sketchy at times but still registered a convincing win as OSU moved into 2nd place in the conference, one game behind the Badgers.
