Ohio State 62, Virginia Tech 57
by Will Stewart, TechSideline.com, 12/6/03
Columbus, OH -- Ohio State built an 18-point first-half lead and then held off two second-half Virginia Tech rallies to down the Hokies 62-57 before 14,248 fans. Virginia Tech was paced by freshman guard Zabian Dowdell with 18 points, while senior forward Bryant Matthews added 15 before fouling out.
Down 13-12 with about 12 minutes to go in the first half, the Buckeyes went on a 28-9 run to build a 40-22 lead late in the first half. Virginia Tech almost closed the gap to 13 points before the half, but a three-pointer by Tech's Jamon Gordon from nearly half court was ruled as being after the buzzer. The referees originally ruled the shot as good, but under a new college rule, they can review last-second shots on replay. They took five looks at it and decided that the shot had not left Gordon's hand before the buzzer, so they disallowed it, and OSU took a 40-24 lead into half time.
The first-half key for Ohio State was limiting the scoring of Matthews, who had scored 73 points in his last two games and entered the game as the leading scorer in the country at 27.4 points per game. Matthews didn't get a shot off until nearly 10 minutes had passed, and OSU held him to 4 first-half points on 2-for-8 shooting.
Virginia Tech came out smoking in the second half. They put a zone defense on Ohio State that spurred them to a 12-1 run to open the half, and OSU led just 41-36 with 14:48 to go. The Buckeyes collected themselves and responded with a 9-0 run to push the lead back to 50-36 with 11:20 to go.
The Hokies went on their second run of the second half at that point, and Gordon finished off a 16-8 Tech run with a layup after a steal, bringing the Hokies to a 58-52 deficit with 3:45 to go. After a miss by OSU, the Hokies called timeout and decided to get the ball to Matthews, who missed two straight open three-pointers. The Buckeyes hit a basket to go back up by eight points, 60-52, and Matthews then fouled out on a charge with 1:59 to go.
VT closed it to 60-53 on a free throw by Phil McCandies, but then Gordon airballed a finger-roll layup with 35 seconds to go that would have cut it to five points. The Hokies fouled Terence Dials on the rebound, and Dials hit both to put OSU up 62-53.
The Hokies scored the last four points of the game. Gordon drove the lane, was fouled, and hit both free throws with 24.9 seconds to go. Then Dowdell stole the inbounds pass, was fouled, and hit both free throws to make the score 62-57 with 24.0 seconds left.
Tech fouled Tony Stockman, a 93% free throw shooter, with 20.3 seconds to go, and Stockman missed the front end of the one-and-one. On the ensuing Hokie possession, Gordon drove the lane and kicked an awkward pass out to Dowdell, who collected the ball and missed a three-pointer with 7.1 seconds to go. That ended Tech's comeback effort, and the Hokies lost for the first time ever to Ohio State.
Virginia Tech shot 20-of-61 (33%) from the field, including 7-of-21 from three-point range, and Ohio State shot 23-of-53 (43%), including 6-of-18 on three-pointers. VT was 10-of-15 on free throws but didn't shoot a single on in the first half, while OSU was 10-of-17 from the charity stripe. The bigger and taller Buckeyes outrebounded VT 43-36. The Hokies had just 10 turnovers, including three straight turnovers on their first three possessions, while OSU had 16.
Virginia Tech is now 3-3 on the season. The Hokies' next game is Wednesday, December 10th, against VMI at home, at 7 p.m.
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Ohio State 62, Virginia Tech 57
12/06/03, Columbus, OH
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Ohio State.................... 40 22 62
Virginia Tech................. 24 33 57
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VIRGINIA TECH (57)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
P McCandies 31 1-9 1-4 3-7 1 3 3
B Matthews 38 6-17 2-3 3-8 1 5 15
Z Dowdell 40 6-15 3-4 0-2 3 1 18
J Gordon 32 2-11 2-2 2-7 6 4 7
M Sailes 33 1-4 0-0 0-1 4 1 3
F Davis 5 2-2 0-0 2-2 0 1 5
M Lattimore 3 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
A Calloway 18 2-3 2-2 0-2 0 4 6
_____________________________________________________
TOTALS 200 20-61 10-15 10-30 15 19 57
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Percentages: FG-.328, FT-.667. 3-Point Goals:
7-21, .333 (B Matthews 1-6, Z Dowdell 3-9, J
Gordon 1-3, M Sailes 1-2, F Davis 1-1). Team
Rebounds: 6. Blocked Shots: 1 (Z Dowdell).
Turnovers: 10 (B Matthews 4, P McCandies 3, Z
Dowdell 3). Steals: 8 (Z Dowdell 3, J Gordon
2, A Calloway, P McCandies, M Sailes).
OHIO ST (62)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
T Dials 31 2-4 4-6 1-7 1 2 8
V Radinovic 34 3-5 1-1 3-9 1 2 7
J Sullinger 30 8-13 4-7 3-11 0 4 22
B Fuss Cheatham 32 2-4 0-0 0-1 5 0 4
R Billings 11 0-2 0-0 0-0 2 1 0
T Stockman 33 5-14 0-1 1-4 5 1 14
M Sylvester 16 3-7 0-0 1-3 1 2 6
S Jenkins 13 0-4 1-2 2-5 0 1 1
_____________________________________________________
TOTALS 200 23-53 10-17 11-40 15 13 62
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Percentages: FG-.434, FT-.588. 3-Point Goals:
6-18, .333 (J Sullinger 2-5, R Billings 0-2,
T Stockman 4-9, M Sylvester 0-2). Team
Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: 5 (V Radinovic 3,
T Dials, J Sullinger). Turnovers: 15 (T
Stockman 4, J Sullinger 4, R Billings 3, B
Fuss Cheatham 2, T Dials, S Jenkins). Steals:
1 (T Dials).
2003-2004 Men's Basketball Schedule/Results