Ohio State Trounces Indiana (Again) 82-61

Ohio State won it's second game in a row and their fourteenth conference game of the season by the way of thrashing Indiana 82-61; they will likely return to the top spot in both national polls. This occurred in a game in which foul trouble was rampant on both sides, including two quick fouls on Jared Sullinger, who would end the day with only five points, all from the free throw line (0-2 FG). The difference maker for the Buckeyes would turn out to be their streaky freshman, Deshaun Thomas.

With 8:16 left to go in the first half, Thomas went wild for the next four minutes, scoring 14 straight points for the Buckeyes to Indiana's 3 during that stretch. Thomas made five straight shots (including two straight three-pointers) and two free throws as the Buckeyes' lead ballooned to 30-13.

OSU wouldn't look back from that point on, and Thomas would finish the day with 22 points on 7-9 shooting from the field, 6-7 from the free throw line, and 2-3 from behind the arc. The highly touted freshman broke out of a seven-game scoring drought in which he only scored 13 points total after scoring 13 in OSU's home win against Purdue.

Player Notes:

• Besides Deshaun Thomas going bananas with 22 points, OSU also got double digit scorers from William Buford with 15, and David Lighty and Jon Diebler with 11 each for the Buckeyes.
• IU would eventually raise their shooting numbers to a better-than-expected 38.5% on field goals, but in the first half most of the Hoosiers couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat. The most notable first half stat was that they went 0-8 from the three point line. This was huge for the Buckeyes, as the cold IU shooting allowed them to build a 20 point lead, despite foul trouble on both sides and Indiana actually out-rebounding OSU 18-14.
• The worst offenders for IU turned out to be their two most important players, Christian Watford and Jordan Hulls: Hulls wouldn't get his first basket until there was about 12 minutes left in the game, and he would finish with only 3 points on 1-9 shooting. Meanwhile, Watford got to double figures (12) thanks to two 3-pointers and four free throws, but was horrid with his ball-handling; he had 5 turnovers to 0 assists and steals, good for a BCI of 0.00, which is literally as bad as it gets.
• On the opposite end of things, Aaron Craft finished the game with 8 points, but even more impressive were his 5 assists and 6 steals to just 1 turnover, good for a BCI of 11.0. Needless to say, Craft was rewarded once again for his peskiness on the defensive end, despite three fouls and one ugly collision with Indiana's Victor Oladipo. 
• Back to Deshaun Thomas real quick: he averaged 2.44 PPS for the game, which is simply just another random stat that tells us that yes, he did have a pretty good day.

Stat Breakdown

• As expected, OSU dominated almost every aspect on the offensive and defensive end of the floor, hit a good amount of their shots, and forcing Indiana into either a bad shot or a turnover for much of the first half. Chances are good that when OSU has a BCI of more than 2 and a true shooting percentage of more than 60%, they'll win that ball game.
• The Hoosiers actually had the rebounding advantage after 20 minutes, and finished the game with respectable rebounding numbers compared to Ohio State. Unfortunately, they were doomed by poor offensive execution and foul trouble.
• Speaking of foul trouble, that certainly helped drag the game on longer than was needed. A total number of 47 fouls were whistled, and really messed up the flow of the game, as noted by Gus Johnson in the 2nd half. After watching the foul-fest that was the Missouri vs. K-State game yesterday, it was annoying to say the least. The one major difference was OSU's ability to get to the charity stripe; they shot 16 more FT's than Indiana, but both teams only made 75% of their shots.

Final Verdict 

In the end, this game was fairly similar to the last meeting between the Hoosiers and Buckeyes. OSU, as expected, wasn't quite as ridiculous shooting the ball, but they were still their usual self, which is still great. All in all, this was just a tune-up for Ohio State's final two games, a road date with sneaky Penn State, and the home finale against the Badgers of Wisconsin. Ohio State should be number 1 by tomorrow, and if they can win their final two regular season games and avoid any upsets in the Big Ten tournament, they should be a lock for a number 1 seed in the NCAA's. As for IU, all they have left to play for (as noted earlier) is pride. It's been a long few years during the Tom Crean Era. All Indiana fans can do now is hope that the highly touted recruiting class coming in next season will end the Hoosier's losing ways.