Notes and Quotes from Murray State Game – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/12/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 12, 1999
Ohio State vs. Murray State Game Notes
Ohio State has now won nine of its last 11 games, while Murray State lost just its second game in the last seven. Murray State falls to 0-10 vs. Big Ten teams and is now 1-10 in NCAA Tournament play.
Murray State had three turnovers before getting its first shot off, but Ohio State was unable to take advantage as it hit just one of its first six field goal attempts and three of its first 15 shots. After falling behind 10-7, OSU had a 23-5 run over the next 11:20 to take a 30-15 lead. The Buckeyes hit eight of their last 10 shots in the first half after making just six of their first 22. OSU finished the game with a 36-16 advantage in “points in the paint”, and they have now hit at least one three-point field goal in its last 216 games. MSU’s 27.3% field goal shooting was the fourth worst in NCAA South Region history.
OSU’s Michael Redd hit double digits in scoring for the 31st time in 32 games this season. He needed 23 points tonight to catch Clark Kellogg on the OSU career scoring list and got 27. Redd’s career total now stands at 1,289 points. He has hit 40 of 74 field goal attempts in the last four games – 54% accuracy.
For OSU, Ken Johnson blocked five shots and has at least one rejection in 18 of the last 21 games. Jason Singleton tied his career and season high with 10 rebounds. He also had 10 points for his fourth career-double-double and the second this season.
MSU’s Aubrey Reese was just three points short of his season and career high with 26 points (he scored 29 points vs. Florida State). Reese scored 12 of MSU’s 13 points in a stretch running from 2:04 mark of the first half to the 15:00 mark of the second half. Over the last five games, Reese has averaged 17.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg and shot 45% from beyond the arc (10 of 22).
MSU’s Duane Virgil closed out his senior season in strong fashion. Over the last five games, he averaged 14.8 ppg, 6.6 rpg and shot 62% from the field. Sophomore Ray Cunningham chipped in with a career high 10 rebounds tonight. After providing 10.7 rpg and 22 of 34 shooting in the three games prior to the NCAA Tournament, Isaac Spencer was held to just seven points, three rebounds and three of eight shooting in 19 minutes of play. OSU’s Scoonie Penn had scored 168 points in his last seven outings, but was held to just seven points tonight on two of 12 shooting overall and one of eight from beyond the arc. Penn still needs two more treys to catch Doug Etzler’s OSU season record of 78 three-point field goals. Tonight was the first time Penn had not scored in double figures since getting just six points in a win over Purdue on Jan. 19.
Post-Game Quotes
Ohio State
Head coach Jim O’Brien – “We have to be very happy to be able to go on. The objective of everybody is to move on in these games. I don’t think we were very good offensively today. I think that Murray State did a very good job of guarding us. We didn’t shoot the ball very well, especially from the free throw line. I thought we were excellent defensively and I think some significant numbers were the fact that they came in averaging just under 80 points a game and they end up with 58. I think defensively is where we won this game. We are very happy to be moving on.”
“I think that when you get in the tournament it is about survival. It is just about survival and about moving on. I am hopeful that we are going to play a little bit better than we played tonight, but I think that it is a real positive that you don’t play you best game and you are still able to win in this tournament and move on.”
“On of the things that we thought we needed to do was not five them second-chance baskets. We did not do a very good job of doing that. We also did not want to give them transition baskets and I thought we did a great job of doing that.”
Scoonie Penn – “I have to keep shooting the ball. Sooner or later it is going to drop.”
On his health –“Physically I felt good. I had no problem out there, once I got out there and started running around everything was fine.”
Michael Redd – “We knew we were in for a dogfight tonight and it was a key for us to start out pretty fast. We just took our time, got really focused and played hard defense.”
“Teams are going to look at Scoonie and me as the main scorers and try to shut us down. It is really big for the rest of the team to score and make the best of their opportunities.”
“I have been trying to step it up to another level. Plus, it is tournament time and you really don’t want the season to end.”
Ken Johnson – “I tried to stay positive, play hard and play smart. Coach always says to stay out of foul trouble and stay on the floor. I think that I have to play aggressive and still block shots.”
Murray State
Head coach Tevester Anderson – “We were beaten by a very fine team. Ohio State played well. We didn’t shoot very well, we usually shoot better than we shot today. We ran into a buzzsaw. They are a good team, a very fine team. They are well coached. I thought the teams in some areas were pretty much even, but some areas they were superior to us. And in some we were superior to them. At least we were beaten by a very fine team. Coach (Jim) O’Brien has done a great job in preparing his team for this particular game. I thought that he took a lot of things away from us that we like to do. At the same time when you rebound the ball as well as rebounded, get 21 offensive rebounds and don’t shoot 27 percent then something is wrong. We did not shoot the ball as well as we usually shoot the ball. They shot it not so well at 42 percent, but shot it better than we did and were fortunate to win the game.”
Anderson on Isaac Spencer’s back injury sustained in the first five minutes of the game: “It (the injury) happened in the first five minutes of the game. As the game went on, it go worse and worse. We tried to bring him back. The instructions from our trainer was that if he was going to play, he has to play now because sit on the bench for a while it would stiffen up on him and we would not be able to use him the rest of the game. We tried to play him earlier that we probably should have and it backfired on us.”
Aubrey Reese playing without Spencer: “Isaac is the guy we look to help us out when we need a basket. The guys that came in, they played hard. The shots just weren’t falling for us. We just couldn’t cut back into the lead they had at halftime. When you have a player that gets hurt like that, the rest of the team has to step up and has got to help us out.”
Duane Virgil on the play of Ken Johnson: “He’s a real great shot blocker. Our team is a great team and I think people underestimate us. He blocks a lot of shots, you have got to try and shake him off, but it didn’t work so he’s one of the best shot blocker’s I’ve played against.”
Anderson on Michael Redd: “Michael Redd is an awfully good player. He’s a big-time scorer and handles the ball well. He’s a complete player. He’s one of the better players we played against this year. We thought we could slow him down some. We thought Marlon Towns would do a good job on him and probably did the best he could on him. He’s tough to defense because he is so elusive and he shoots the ball so well. When you play a guy like that plays that well off the dribble, it’s really hard to contain him. He was tough tonight for us.”
Anderson on frustrating losing in first round: “It’s frustrating. We wanted to win some games in the tournament. I thought this year’s team had a chance. I realize Ohio State is a very good defensive team and I never thought that a team was out there that could force us to shoot 27 percent from the field. When you lose your emotional leader, Isaac Spencer, not necessarily a great player for us offensively or defensively, but he’s our emotional leader. Basketball is a game of emotion. When you lose your emotional leader, it really hampers you quite a bit in getting over the hump. It’s frustrating not to win games in the NCAA, but one day we will. We just have to keep playing and one of these days the ball is going to bounce our way and we’ll win games ourselves.”
