William Buford led Ohio State with 18 points, and three other Buckeyes scored in double figures as they won easy over Texas-San Antonio. The Buckeyes got off to a slow start in the first half but eventually pulled away with good defense and even better three point shooting, mainly from Buford and shooting specialist Jon Diebler. OSU finished the day 12-24 from behind the arc.
UTSA beat the Alabam State Hornets in the final set of games for the First Four, the new first round for the 68-team tournament, before facing off against the number one overall seed Buckeyes. The Roadrunners got a big game from Devin Gibson, who scored 24 points on 9-17 shooting and grabbed four steals; he has been one of the few opposing guards to actually outplay the Big Ten 6th Man of the Year in Aaron Craft, who had zero points, three fouls, and four turnovers to go along with his seven assists. Outside of Gibson, however, the Roadrunners second leading scorer only had six points.
Sophomore Melvin Johnson III, UTSA's second leading scorer, was 1-9 from the field and only scored five points on the day after scoring a career high 29 points against Alabama State.
Ohio State will now face the George Mason Patriots in the third round. GMU got to the third round by the way of a dramatic comeback victory against the disappointing Wildcats of Villanova. It was the Patriots's first win in the Big Dance since Jim Larranaga led them to the Final Four in 2006. George Mason will now look to pull the upset on Sunday against the Buckeyes, who should go into the game expecting a fight.