Ohio State 89 Morgan State 50 Game Recap

The Ohio State football team is on a bye week so all eyes where on the basketball program, even if the game wasn't readily available on television. Facing Morgan State, the Buckeyes cruised to an early lead and never looked back as they ended up with a 39 point victory over the Bears.

The Buckeyes saw five different players score in double digits, led by forward Lenzelle Smith Jr., who scored 18 points on 7 of 11 shooting and 4 made three pointers. Recording a double-double was forward LaQuinton Ross with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Shannon Scott led the team with 7 assists.

It was a relatively quiet day for Aaron Craft, scoring only 5 points on 1 of 5 shooting. Craft did add 6 assists and even more notable was Craft only committed one personal foul. As most fans of the league know by now, Aaron Craft plays an annoyingly suffocating style of defense that can be heavy on contact. This led to questions on how he would handle new rules that look to penalize defenders for being physical. If Craft can stay out of foul trouble like today it will be pivotal for the success of the Buckeyes as he is clearly the teams leader.

Overall the Buckeyes shot the ball very well in the opener, hitting on 47.7% of their field goals and 44% of their three pointers. The team also saw solid contributions from their bench, scoring 32 points on the day. Leading the way off the bench were Sam Thompson and Marc Loving, scoring 14 and 10 points respectively.

The Buckeyes defense effectively shut down the Bears, holding them to 30.8% from the field and 3 of 18 from beyond the arc. The Bears also struggled from the line (7 of 15), on the glass (lost the rebounding battle 34-55) and saw it's bench only add 5 points.

The eleventh ranked Buckeyes will take on the Ohio Bobcats next Tuesday before heading to Marquette next Saturday in what will be their first major test of the season. The Buckeyes will also face off against Maryland and Notre Dame prior to conference play.