Buckeyes Victorious Over Virginia Tech, 62-57 – Ohio State Buckeyes
12/6/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec 6, 2003
Box Score| Quotes| Notes
By RUSTY MILLER
AP Sports Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio – J.J. Sullinger scored Ohio State’s first 12 points and Tony Stockman contributed big plays in two surges to lead the Buckeyes to a 62-57 victory over Virginia Tech on Saturday.
The game was played at Nationwide Arena, home of the NHL Columbus Blue Jackets, as a dry run prior to the facility hosting first- and second-round games of the NCAA men’s tournament on March 19 and 21, 2004.
Ohio State’s floor was transported the three miles to the downtown arena, as were the baskets and shot clocks.
It was the Buckeyes first game in Columbus that wasn’t on campus in more than 47 years.
Both Sullinger, from Arkansas, and Stockman, out of Clemson, are transfers in their first season playing with the Buckeyes (3-3).
Sullinger finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds with Stockman adding 14 points and five assists.
Virginia Tech (3-3) leading scorer Bryant Matthews, who came in averaging 27.4 points a game after back-to-back games of 36 and 37, was held to 15 by Ohio State’s array of zone defenses. He hit just 6 of 17 shots from the field.
Zabian Dowdell led the Hokies – who had beaten Ohio State in all four previous meetings – with 18 points.
Down by 16 at the half, Virginia Tech relied on sticky defense and muscular play inside to get back in the game.
The Hokies held Ohio State without a point for the opening 4:05 and without a field goal in the first 5:32 of the second half, going on a 13-1 run to pull to 41-37 on Dowdell’s banked-in perimeter shot from behind the foul line with 14:50 left.
But the Buckeyes reeled off the next nine points over a 4-minute span. The spurt was started by Stockman’s line-drive 3-pointer and was capped by Stockman’s backdoor alley-oop pass to Sullinger for a dunk at 11:20 that made it 50-37.
A 6-0 Hokies run cut it to 58-52 with 3:45 left, but Terence Dials drove the baseline and dunked off a pass from Brandon Fuss-Cheatham at 2:07. Eight seconds later, Matthews was called for his fifth foul on a charge and the outcome was all but decided.
The lead never dropped below the final margin again.
Sullinger hit 8 of 13 shots from the field and Stockman was 4 of 9 behind the 3-point arc.
Nothing went the Hokies way in the opening half.
Matthews was held to just four points by a cloying, trapping 1-3-1 zone. His first bucket of the game at the 6:17 mark cut Ohio State’s lead to 20-15 before the Buckeyes scored 11 of the next 13 points – Stockman hitting two 3-pointers.
Sullinger scored all the Buckeyes’ points in the opening 10 minutes, hitting all five of his shots from the field.
Virginia Tech’s Jamon Gordon hit a 40-foot 3-pointer as the first-half buzzer sounded, but the officials reviewed the shot on videotape and ruled that it came after time had expired.
