Men’s Basketball Notes and Quotes – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/10/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 10, 1999
Box Score
Quotes vs. Marathon Oil
Ohio State associate head coach Rick Boyages
“I thought we had a good effort. We’re still trying to find out what we’ve got.”
“The reason why these guys are tough to play is they spread you out and they’re tough to guard. I thought we struggled offensively early, then we exploded. We’ll never have a problem scoring, but defense is what concerns us.”
(On playing exhibition games) “These games are good for us. It’s good to play older, veteran college players.”
(On Johnson’s foul trouble) “Losing Kenny in the game is probably the most disastrous thing that could happen to us because you can see he does things for us defensively.”
(On Coach O’Brien) “We’ve been together as a staff for nine years and he’s never missed a game before now.”
Scoonie Penn
“We’re getting closer to the way we want to play. We still have five days to prepare for the regular season. We will be ready.” “The preseason All-American award right now is all talk. It’s nice to earn to with those four other players, but I still have to go out and perform on the court every game.”
Cobe Ocokoljic “When you go out and work hard in practice, you perform well on the court. Tonight I played hard and had fun. I am looking forward to playing Notre Dame in my first regular season game.”
George Reese
“With the lineup we have, Cobe and I have more freedom to run with the offense. Teams are going to be focusing and Michael and Scoonie, so we have to come off the picks and help them.” “We are looking to the Preseason NIT, but we have to come out and play every game and take each game at a time.”
Notes vs. Marathon Oil
George Reese’s 19 points in the first half eclipsed his careerhigh of 14, set last season at Michigan State (1/27/99). Reesefinished the game with a game-high 21 points, as well as sixrebounds. Ohio State held Marathon to just three points over thefinal 3:44 of the first half, breaking the game open with a 17-3run. The first half was close until the run, with the two teamsexchanging leads four times while tying five times. Ohio Stateplaced four players in double figures, paced by Reese’s 21-pointeffort. Cobe Ocokojic (15), Michael Redd (14) and Scoonie Penn (11)also broke into double figures for the Buckeyes. Buckeye newcomersCobe Ocokoljic and Brent Darby gave OSU a big lift off the bench.Ocokoljic tallied 15 points, going 2-for-3 from behind thethree-point line, while Darby hit for five points and dished out anassist. The Buckeyes showed a tremendous improvement in free throwshooting, drilling 10 of 16 charity tosses (62.5%). OSU shot16-of-33 (48.5%) in the first exhibition contest vs. One World.Four Buckeyes – Scoonie Penn, Brian Brown, Michael Reddand Boban Savovic – dished out four assists apiece. OSUtotaled 20 assists in the contest. Michael Redd recorded adouble-double in the contest, scoring 14 points while snaring 10boards – nine on the defensive end. Redd has seven careerregular season double-doubles, including four last year. OSUdrilled eight three-pointers in the game. The Buckeyes enter theregular season with a streak of 220 consecutive games with a madethree-pointer.
