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No. 9 Ohio State Pulls Away From Penn State
University Park, PA (Sports Network) - Evan Turner proved to be too much down the stretch, breaking open a two-point affair late with eight straight Buckeye points, as No. 9 Ohio State held off Penn State for a 75-67 victory at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Turner, whose burst came with under five minutes to play, recorded game-highs of 25 points and seven assists while also grabbing seven rebounds for the Buckeyes (22-7, 12-4 Big Ten), who were coming off a big win over fellow conference power Michigan State on Sunday and have won eight of their last nine games.
David Lighty added 18 points, Jon Diebler contributed with 16 points and William Buford ended with a dozen points for Ohio State in the victory.
Talor Battle came up with 22 points for the Nittany Lions (10-17, 2-13), who had strung together back-to-back road wins over league foes after starting 0-12 in conference play. David Jackson scored 13 with six rebounds in defeat.
Penn State put in the last four points of the second half to get within 30-26 at the break, but were quickly down 17 after Ohio State opened the second half on a 19-6 run.
Diebler and Lighty bookended the stretch with threes and Turner did the dirty work in between with a mini six-point burst of his own for a 49-32 game a little over six minutes in.
The Lions answered with an ensuing 12-1 spurt, sparked by three consecutive makes from beyond the arc. Jackson nailed two around a three by Battle, who polished off the sequence with the conventional three-point play to make it 50-44 with 11 1/2 minutes remaining.
The Buckeyes stretched their lead back to 11 a short time later before Andrew Jones led a Penn State charge that drew the hosts within two near the five- minute mark.
Jones scored six of his eight points in the game to get things rolling, Jeff Brooks got the next four and Jackson muscled his way to the hoop for two, was fouled and converted the three-point play to cap a quick 13-4 burst for a 59-57 affair.
But Turner essentially took over the game by pouring in eight of the next 10 points in short order to give the visitors a 67-59 lead with two minutes remaining.
That looked to be enough to get the Buckeyes the win, but Chris Babb was fouled while banking in a desperation three for Penn State with 38.8 seconds left, making it a five-point game. Babb missed the free throw and Diebler ran the floor for a fastbreak layup.
Buford foolishly stopped the clock with 30.3 showing with a foul of Tim Frazier, but he made just 1-of-2. Turner and Diebler then put the game away at the line with four consecutive makes from the charity stripe.
The Buckeyes beat the Nittany Lions, 75-62, earlier this month in Columbus and increased their lead to 27-13 in the all-time series with Wednesday's win...Penn State's 10 turnovers led to 13 Buckeye points...All 75 points for OSU came from the starters as Dallas Lauderdale chipped in with four points to go with a game-best 10 rebounds...Brooks also donated eight points, while Jones added eight boards for the Nittany Lions, who shot 51.7 percent in the second half...Ohio State hit 53.8 percent of its shots over the final 20 minutes.
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