Post Game Notes From Ohio State vs. Samford – Ohio State Buckeyes
12/14/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 14, 2003
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Attendance: 12,795 In the 80-62 win Saturday, the Buckeyes setseason highs in points (80), field goal percentage (57.1percent),field goals made (28), free throw percentage (85.7 percent) andtied a season high in turnovers caused with 16 and team steals withseven. Ohio State scored 80 points for the first time this seasonand the first time since an 83-72 victory over Iowa, Jan. 25, 2002.The 18-point win was Ohio State’s largest of the season. TheBuckeyes had five players score in double figures. Senior VelimirRadinovic led with 19, while junior Tony Stockman (16), sophomoreJ.J. Sullinger (13), junior Brandon Fuss-Cheatham (11) andsophomore Matt Sylvester (10). This marks the first time since OhioState’s 96-80 victory over Radford, Dec. 23, 2002, the Buckeyesfeatured five players scoring in double figures. Samford forwardEddie Harper entered the game Saturday with a 14.0-point per-gamescoring average, including scoring in double figures in each ofSamford’s five games. Saturday, the Buckeyes held Harper to aseason-low six points on 2-of-7 shooting. The Buckeye benchoutscored Samford by a 30-14 figure, reaching as high as a 27-3advantage in midway through the second half.
Ohio State also owned an 11-2 advantage in fast break points over Samford.
The Buckeyes trailed Samford 18-12 at the 11:46 mark in thefirst half before going on a 16-0 run over the next four minutesand 37 seconds en route to taking a 28-18 lead at the 7:09 mark. Inthe first half, Ohio State shot their highest field goal percentageof the season, connecting on 67.9 percent on 19-28 from the field.Both teams combined to make 19 of the first 29 shots in the game.The game Saturday marked Ohio State’s second game at Value CityArena this season. In its other contest at home the Buckeyes fell73-53 against No. 10 Georgia Tech, Dec. 3. Ohio State is 1-1 athome, 3-2 away from Value City Arena and 3-1 on neutral courts. Thegame Saturday marked the first meeting between Ohio State andSamford. With the victory Ohio State improved to 14-0 against teamsfrom the Ohio Valley Conference. Ohio State downed Tennessee Tech71-64, Dec. 7, 2002, in the last meeting against an Ohio ValleyConference opponent. With the win Saturday, Ohio State upped itsrecord to 11-5 in games played on Dec. 13, they have won the pastsix games on this date. The Buckeyes scored 42 points in the firsthalf against Samford. The 42-point output matches the 42-pointfirst half performance against Central Michigan in the second gameof the Maui Invitational.
Ohio State Player Notes
Ohio State senior center Velimir Radinovic scored the firsteight points for the Buckeyes over the initial 4:49 of the gamebefore junior guard Brandon Fuss-Cheatham scored a on a follow-up,tying the game at 10-10 with 14:20 to play.
Radinovic was 6-6 in the first half en route to a season-high 19 points in the games, falling one-point shy of his career best 20-point performance against Purdue on Jan. 29, 2003.
With his follow-up dunk at the end of the first half, Radinovic scored his 500th career point at Ohio State.
The 19-point performance by Radinovic is his 19th career game scoring at least 10 points.
Radinovic’s 7-8 shooting performance from the field increasedhis team leading field goal percentage to 82 percent on 19-23shooting through seven games this season. Junior guard BrandonFuss-Cheatam scored a career-high 11 points Saturday, topping hisprevious high of eight points against Pittsburgh last season (Dec.18, 2002). Junior guard Tony Stockman’s 16 points served as hissecond highest total this season. Stockman converted on 4-of-6attempts from outside the three-point arc, which served as hisseason-best shooting performance form three-point range.
Stockman has scored in double figures in six of Ohio State seven games.
Ohio State sophomore guard Matt Sylvester scored a season high10 points, all in the first half. Sylvester was 2-of-4 fromthree-point range, which served as his first game with multiplethree-point makes in a single game. Ohio State sophomore guard J.J.Sullinger scored 13 points in the game Saturday, serving as hisfourth straight game scoring in double figues.
