College basketball head coaches are rarely satisfied. Ohio State's Thad Matta is no different.
The Buckeyes had just beaten Morehead State at home Saturday, 87-71, but Matta, who had just coached the 500th game of his career, was hardly pleased with the way his team performed.
"We were sloppy, we weren’t as sharp as we needed to be really on both ends," he said. "We did some things that lead one to believe we weren’t as tuned in as we needed to be.”
Part of it was because of Ohio State's inability to fully run away from the visiting Eagles. The Buckeyes (8-1) played a pretty flawless first half and led by 19 at intermission. They shot 54 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, connected on five 3-pointers and committed just three turnovers while forcing eight. It had all the makings of another Ohio State rout.
But in the second half, something changed. Morehead State became the aggressor and somewhat took it to the Buckeyes over the game's final 20 minutes. Ohio State turned the ball over 14 times in the second half alone as it was outscored by three points.
The Buckeyes, who had been pretty consistent defensively throughout the season up until Saturday, allowed visiting Morehead State to shoot 55 percent from the field and nearly 44 percent from 3-point range.
"We played a really good first half and we sort of let our guard down in the second half," said Ohio State senior forward Sam Thompson, who scored a season-high 15 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out five assists. "We didn't have that same type of energy and intensity and execution in the second half on both sides of the floor."
Things weren't all bad for Ohio State, though. Because in reality, the Buckeyes did pull out a 16-point win and never trailed in the game.
In addition to Thompson's 15 points, freshman D'Angelo Russell also scored 15 while dishing out seven assists. Amir Williams and Jae'Sean Tate each scored 12 points while Williams grabbed a season-high nine rebounds as the Buckeyes had four guys score in double figures.
Senior point guard Shannon Scott finished with nine points while freshmen Kam Williams and Keita Bates-Diop each scored eight off the bench for Ohio State, which shot 56.6 percent for the game.
"I thought the guys on the bench came in and really ignited us," Matta said. "Jae’Sean was Jae’Sean, he had some big, big plays to kind of calm things down if you will and Kam kind of came in and did his deal. I thought Keita played very well today.”
But with a date against North Carolina right around the corner followed by Big Ten play, the Buckeyes know there is still plenty of room for them to improve, despite earning a 16-point victory.
"This is a learning experience for us, we gotta do a better job handling the pressure," Thompson said. "We haven't shown ourselves to handle the pressure well all season so we're just going to keep learning from it. Definitely needed. We definitely needed something like that."
