» NCAA Basketball » Hoyas March Ends in Atlanta With a Disappointing Loss to Ohio State 67-60
Hoyas March Ends in Atlanta With a Disappointing Loss to Ohio State 67-60
Story by: Richard thomas
Posted March 31, 2007
Photos by: Sol tucker
Atlanta, GA--
It was a match-up everyone in the Georgia Dome and in the national audience wanted to see, Roy Hibbert versus Greg Oden, that happened, but it was the quickness of the Ohio State back court that did in the Hoyas tonight.
Mike Conley led the way for the Buckeyes and finished with 15 points, six assists and five rebounds, while Greg Oden, who sat most of the first half with foul trouble added 13 points and eight rebounds all of which he tallied in the second half.
The biggest story of the night could have come in the bench points comparison for both teams. The Hoyas came up with a huge goose egg and the Ohio State bench, well we won't discuss how they efficiently took care of the Hoyas sharp shooters in Jonathan Wallace and Jesse Sapp.
If the bench play was not enough for Hoyas fans to be unhappy about , how about the defense that surrounded Jeff Green all night. The Big East player did not score until late in the first half and had nine points on five shots from the floor. Five shots.... come on your best player attempting just five shots! Give Ohio State some credit here, but certainly give Jeff Green a F for finding ways not to take over the game as he has for the past two weekends.
Roy Hibbert did win the game of the big men and did an excellent job in the first half controlling Oden. Hibbert finished the game with 19 points, but just had six rebounds. He managed to get Oden in foul trouble as they anticipated would happen but the coin was flipped in the second half when Hoyas Head Coach John Thompson III had to sit him for a good period of the second half when he picked up his fourth foul.
" I give a lot of credit to our guys tonight as well as Ohio State. Their guards had some superb play, but we just could not answer when Oden was out of the game, said Thompson.
Ohio State will face the winner of the UCLA and Ohio State winner on Monday night and after tonight has a very good chance of taking home the National title the same day as well.
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