Big Ten Finishes Tour with 92-84 victory over Ricoh Astronauts – Ohio State Buckeyes
8/19/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Aug. 19, 2002
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Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Michigan State’s Chris Hill scored 22 points to lead the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Foreign Tour squad to a 92-84 victory over the Ricoh Astronauts in Amsterdam Saturday night. The victory in the final game of the tour gives the Big Ten a 4-1 record.
Ricoh took a 70-69 lead with 7:41 remaining on three Sasja Ocokoljic free throws, but the Big Ten answered with a three pointer by Roger Powell, two free throws by Bernard Robinson and nine points by Hill in the final five minutes to post the win.
“After they took the lead, I thought we did a good job on the defensive end to forced some turnovers, and we got enough offense to get some open shots,” said Hill. “This was a nice way to end our tour.
Ocokoljic led the Astronauts with 35 points, including 15 of 19 free throws, but also had 13 turnovers. Powell followed Hill with 15 points, while Robinson added 11 and Tom Coverdale, Ben Johnson and Sean Harrington all contributed 10 points. Powell led the team with eight rebounds.
“I thought we played hard tonight against a pretty good team,” Head coach Bill Self said. “Chris Hill and Roger Powell really stepped up down the stretch after Amsterdam had taken the lead to give us a little cushion. Our defense helped force 31 turnovers which was probably the difference tonight since they shot 59 percent from the field and beat us on the boards by 15 rebounds. We were just a little more athletic than they were at a couple of positions which put us in a position to win.
The Big Ten finished its five-game tour through Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands with a 4-1 record and is scheduled to land in Chicago at approximately 1:30 p.m. Central on Sunday.
