Ohio State Routs Michigan – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/5/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 5, 1999
Box Score
By NANCY ARMOUR
AP Sports Writer
CHICAGO (AP) – The Ohio State Buckeyes know all too well how miserable life is at the bottom of the Big Ten. Now that they’ve climbed out, think they have any sympathy for the cellar-dwellers?
Think again.
The 11th-ranked Buckeyes, whose 12-4 finish in the Big Ten set a record for turnarounds, turned a close game with Michigan into a blowout Friday. They dunked, drilled shots and denied the Wolverines everything for the 87-69 victory in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament.
Ohio State will play the winner of the Illinois-Indiana in the semifinals Saturday.
Michael Redd led four Buckeyes (23-7) in double figures with 19 points. Slobodan “Boban” Savovic, who was limited to two minutes in the last three games because of an ankle injury, played well defensively, getting four steals and five rebounds.
Scoonie Penn, the Big Ten’s co-MVP, had 14, making him and Redd only the sixth duo at Ohio State to score 500 points apiece in a season.
Louis Bullock scored 19 for Michigan (12-19) and Reid added 13, but the Wolverines were just overmatched. Michigan was held without a field goal for the last 9:05 of the first half, and had just two in the first five minutes of the second.
Michigan, which lost three starters from last year’s Big Ten tournament championship team, will miss a postseason berth for the first time since 1983.
Reid and Bullock did everything they could to keep Michigan in the game, and Reid’s jumper cut Ohio State’s lead to 49-43 with 14:39 left to play. Then the Buckeyes got nasty.
Jon Sanderson hit a layup and made two free throws. Savovic beat Reid for a layup with a stutter-step and then stole the ball. That led to two free throws from Neshaun Coleman, and Ohio State suddenly had a 57-43 lead with 12:30 left.
Brandon Smith got the Wolverines within 10 with 10:21 left, only to have his teammates go into meltdown. When Josh Asselin was ruled out of bounds as he drove to the basket with 9:49 left, he slammed the ball on the floor and was called for a technical, Michigan’s second of the game. The Wolverines made just three field goals the rest of the game, while Ohio State started tossing in 3-pointers, jumpers and layups. A free throw from Brian Brown with 1:07 left gave the Buckeyes a 25-point lead, their largest of the game.
The game didn’t look this easy early on. Coleman cut Michigan’s lead to 16-10 on his school-record 146th career 3-pointer, only to have the Wolverines rip off six quick points. But Michigan didn’t score another field goal the rest of the half.
