Feb. 7, 2010
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Iowa Hawkeyes gave the nationally ranked Ohio State Buckeyes their best shot Sunday in Value City Arena. The Buckeyes shot back…with the Big Ten Conference’s best player.
Ohio State’s Evan Turner scored a game-high 32 points to lead the home team to a 68-58 victory over Todd Lickliter’s squad in a matinee that saw the visiting team hold the Buckeyes to 14 points below their home game average margin of victory.
Turner was a one-man wrecking crew. He made 12 of 22 attempts from the field, was good on nine of 11 stops at the charity stripe, grabbed seven rebounds, and dished out four assists while going from start to finish for the Buckeyes.
Iowa countered with Eric May pacing a group of four Hawkeyes who scored in double-digits. The dynamic freshman from Dubuque scored 16 including a monstrous dunk over Turner during the first half. Aaron Fuller and Cully Payne added 11, and Matt Gatens 10 for the visitors. Fuller led the Hawkeyes in rebounding with 7.
“I am pleased with my offense today, but not so much so with my defensive effort. (Turner’s) just a great player.” May said of Turner, the Buckeye he was charged with stopping on Sunday.
Iowa trailed by five at intermission thanks to 4-of-5 shooting from behind the arc, better than 50 percent shooting overall from the field, and a nice defensive effort. However, Iowa went cold from long distance in the second half and the Buckeyes knocked down 15 of their 19 attempts from the line to secure the victory.
Ohio State also outscored the Hawkeyes on points off turnovers by 10 and were very productive in the paint.
The only other Buckeye to reach double-digits in scoring was Jon Diebler, who had 12.
Iowa returns to action Wednesday night when the Hawkeyes entertain Northwestern at 7:30 p.m. Iowa time inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.