Times wires
Sunday, March 6, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio — In the midst of a raucous locker room after No. 1 Ohio State's 93-65 payback victory over 10th-ranked Wisconsin, Jon Diebler said he was sorry to his teammates.
"I apologize for missing that one," he said.
Everyone laughed.
Diebler lived up to his "3-bler" nickname Sunday by hitting 7 of 8 3-pointers while scoring 27 as Ohio State (29-2, 16-2 Big Ten) set NCAA Division I records by making 14 of 15 3-pointers (93.3 percent) and hitting 14 in a row — after missing the first.
"On our best day this year, we hit 11 of 17 and thought we'd hit the jackpot," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. "Fourteen of 15? I don't think people do that very often. Either that, or I'm living in the wrong part of the country."
Still smarting from their first loss of the year, 71-67 at Wisconsin on Feb. 12, the Buckeyes unleashed their best game of the season: shutdown defense at one end and 68 percent shooting from the field at the other.
"I don't know if you could script it much better," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. "Our defensive energy was incredible … and offensively the shots were falling. It was incredible how well we shot the basketball."
Freshman Jared Sullinger had 22 points weeks after accusing a Wisconsin fan of spitting in his face as he left the floor. He had told people he not only wanted to beat the Badgers, he wanted to beat them by 50 points.
The final score only seemed that lopsided.
"That first loss in college, I didn't take that too lightly," Sullinger said. "I wanted to win, and I wanted to win big, too."
NO. 20 KENTUCKY 64, TENN. 58: Brandon Knight scored 17 of his 19 in the second half for the Wildcats (22-8, 10-6), who clinched a first-round bye in the SEC tournament and earned their second conference road win this season.
MISSOURI VALLEY: Aaron Carter had 15 points and third-seeded Indiana State (20-13) held top seed Missouri State to 30.5 percent shooting in a 60-56 victory in the tournament championship in St. Louis.
State
GA. TECH 66, MIAMI 57: Iman Shumpert had 19 points, Lance Storrs had five of the Yellow Jackets' 12 3-pointers and host Georgia Tech capitalized on 21 turnovers by the Hurricanes (18-13, 6-10 ACC).
SSC tournament
ROLLINS 75, ECKERD 69: Tournament MVP Nick Wolf had 26 points and 10 rebounds to lead the top-seeded Tars (25-6) over the No. 3 seed Tritons (22-8) in the title game in Melbourne.