Recap: Buckeyes Topple Nebrasketball - LaQuinton Ross Torches Huskers For 26 Points

At one point in the 2nd Half, the Buckeyes trailed by as much as 18 points.  In these type of games against quality opponents, 9 times out of 10, that game is over.  This just happened to be that 1 time that the team facing the deficit won.  LaQuinton Ross is going to get a great deal of the credit due to his 26 point performance, but the entire team played a complete game to finish this one and pull off the win by a final score of 71-67.

The leading guys for OSU were clearly LaQuinton Ross and surprisingly Amedeo Della Valle.  Ross scored 26 points and had 13 rebounds.  Arguably, Ross' game was the best single performance by a player in the Big Ten Tournament so far.  However, Della Valle has been pretty bad recently.  To be able to turn it around and get 12 crucial points is huge.  Aaron Craft also ended the afternoon with 6 assists, which were very important for the Buckeyes.

The leading guys for Nebraska were Terran Petteway and Walter Pitchford.  Petteway had 20 points and 5 rebounds.  Pitchford had 15 points and 5 rebounds.  Shavon Shields also had a pretty good game with 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists.  Overall, it was guys like Tai Webster that came up with 0 points that ultimately crippled Nebraska's hopes in making it to the BTT semi-finals.

For Ohio State, they will now get to face arch-rival Michigan in the semi-finals.  The Buckeyes have been excellent in the conference tournament and continued it here.  They have made it to the BTT semi-finals for 6 years in a row and are hoping to extend their 5 year BTT Championship Game appearance streak to 6 years as well.  OSU also appears to be starting to get things clicking as they have won 3 games in a row including 2 already in this tournament.

For Nebraska, one thing is sure that has been pretty unsure in recent years.  There is going to be a postseason for the Huskers.  Nebraska will likely make the NCAA Tournament, but even if they manage to slip through the cracks and miss out, they will be in the NIT.  Nebraska is clearly the most improved team in the Big Ten this year and they are headed in a great direction.