The Ohio State men’s basketball team looked nothing like the Washington Generals as it closed out its exhibition season Friday night with a dominating 106-82 victory over the Harlem Globetrotters.
“Our guys were really prepared to get after it when the game first started,” said OSU men’s basketball coach Jim O’Brien. “I was very happy, especially with the group that started the game.”
The Buckeye starters jumped to a 5-4 lead, then blasted off on a 18-0 scoring streak to take a commanding 22-4 lead. OSU took advantage of a tired-looking Globetrotter team and shot 54 percent from the field.
“Our stuff was working pretty well early in the game,” said guard Brent Darby. “We executed our offense well.”
OSU continued to build on its lead and led 29-9 after a three-point basket from Darby with 12 minutes remaining in the opening half. The two teams then traded baskets until a steal and a layup by junior guard Emonte Jernigan, a transfer from Oregon State. OSU scored the next seven points to lead the Globetrotters 43-17 with 3:33 left in the first half.
Sophomore center Matt Marinchick closed out the first half with a jump shot from the foul line as time expired, sending the Buckeyes to the locker room with a 52-25 lead, with 23 of those points coming off of Globetrotter turnovers.
Darby and sophomore center Terence Dials led the scoring in the first half with 12 points each. Neither player missed a shot.
The Buckeyes began the second half just like the first half. Redshirt freshman Matt Sylvester started the scoring with a jump shot from 10 feet away.
OSU was leading 65-35 when Globetrotter Tony Akins buried a three pointer.
Then Darby led OSU down the floor and found senior guard Sean Connolly in the corner for a three-pointer. Harlem answered with another trey from Keiron Shine. Darby again brought OSU down the floor and again passed the ball to Connolly, who was unguarded in the corner for another three-point basket.
“I was a little short on my shots early in the game, so I tried to put more leg into it later,” Connolly said.
After another trey by Jernigan, OSU was leading by 33 with 13:07 left in the game.
OSU kept up the hot shooting and led by as many as 35 points with a little over 10 minutes remaining. Then O’Brien began to experiment with different lineups, giving minutes to every player on his bench.
“There is no question that it got sloppy in the second half,” O’Brien said. “We had some weird combinations in, and we got a lot of guys minutes.”
With 2:34 left in the game, Marinchick grabbed a rebound and put it back to break the 100-point mark, which brought loud cheers from the otherwise unenthusiastic crowd.
The Globetrotters scored two late layups to keep the margin of victory at 24.
“This was the Globetrotters last game of the season,” Dials said. “We did not want them to get the win on our home floor, so we tried to go out and play as hard as we could. Good things happened for us tonight.”
The Buckeyes were led by Darby’s 25 points and 11 assists. He only missed one shot all night.
But, he also led the team with five turnovers
“He had a great line,” O’Brien said. “The thing I am happy about with him right now is that he’s upset because he had five turnovers. That is a sign of a very mature guy. But, I thought he played great tonight.”
The Globetrotters were led by Chudney Gray with 28 points.
OSU shot nearly 60 percent from the field and outrebounded the Globetrotters 40-20. The Buckeyes also improved their free throw shooting from last year missing only three shots in 24 attempts.
“We were very efficient on offense,” O’Brien said. “But, we got good shots and we finished around the basket and we guarded well. If you can do those things the you are going to be OK.”
OSU opens its regular season at 8 p.m. tonight at home against Coppin State.
