 |
| |
|
 |
 |
 |
INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Boban Savovic did not give Luke Recker a chance to play the hero. Savovic opened the game with a 3-pointer en route to a career-high 27-point performance as 17th-ranked Ohio State rolled to an 81-64 victory over Iowa in the Big Ten Conference championship game. Ohio State (23-7), the second seed in the Big Ten after finishing in a four-way tie for first place during the regular season, reached the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year and will play Davidson in the first round of the West region. "This is a terrific milestone for our program," Ohio State coach Jim O'Brien said. "I couldn't be any prouder about the way our guys played against a very determined team. Our guys deserve a lot of credit." Ohio State becomes the fourth different school to win the Big Ten tournament title, following Michigan in 1998, Michigan State in 1999 and 2000 and Iowa in 2001. But Iowa could not duplicate its feat from last season when it won four tournament games in four days. Iowa (19-15), the ninth seed in the tournament, needed to win Sunday to earn an NCAA bid. "We knew winning four games in four days was going to be difficult, let alone trying to beat three of the four co-champions in the league," Iowa coach Steve Alford said. "We ran out of energy." Recker hit game-winning shots in the quarterfinals and semifinals, but did not have the opportunity to win this one, although he led the Hawkeyes with 21 points. "I wasn't particularly pleased with the way I played today," said Recker, who hit the game-winning baseline shot at the buzzer against his former school Indiana in the semifinals and the winning jumper with two seconds left against Wisconsin in the quarterfinals. "I think I bounced back emotionally, but I could have played better." Instead, Savovic stole the show, drilling five 3-pointers and winning the tournament's most outstanding player award. "My teammates deserve as much credit as I do," Savovic said. "They found me when I was wide open and I knocked down some threes. This was a team effort. Everybody played great and stepped up." "I have to give credit to Boban, he was hot, he was feeling it," said Ohio State guard Brian Brown. "It was like he was possessed. He was shooting the ball with confidence and he got us motivated. I think he just singlehandedly opened the game up." Ohio State scored the first nine points of the game and was never headed, although the Hawkeyes provided a second-half challenge before fading. Savovic and Brown each hit 3-pointers to start the game as Ohio State raced to a 9-0 lead. A 3-pointer by Savovic and a layup by Terence Dials off a pass by Savovic opened the lead to 24-10 midway through the half. Pierre Pierce hit a pair of layups in the final 1:33 of the half to pull Iowa within 37-29. Two layups by Reggie Evans and a layup by Pierce in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the second half cut the deficit to 37-35. But Dials converted a layup and Brent Darby connected on a 3-pointer to increase the Buckeyes' lead to 42-35. Iowa fought back and pulled within 53-50 on Glen Worley's only basket of the game, but Ohio State responded with an 21-8 run as Savovic converted two 3-pointers, two layups and a pair of free throws and Sean Connolly added a 3-pointer and two free throws. Ohio State led by as many as 20 in the final minutes. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
