Several players make key contributions as OSU cruises
IOWA CITY, Iowa — From right in front of the Iowa bench, Kam Williams faked, took a dribble inside the three-point line and buried his third jumper of the game.
He turned over his left shoulder, fixed a stare on the Hawkeyes and a stern-faced coach Fran McCaffery and bellowed, “This is too easy!”
He wasn’t wrong, and it didn’t change much. That basket gave Ohio State a 10-point lead not even eight minutes in, and the Buckeyes fought early foul trouble to continue their unbeaten start to Big Ten play with a 92-81 win over the Hawkeyes that wasn’t as close as the score might indicate.
The Buckeyes (12-4, 3-0 Big Ten)
took a 46-32 lead into halftime despite starters C.J. Jackson and Kaleb Wesson relegated to the bench because of foul trouble.
Iowa made it interesting early, turning the Buckeyes over three times in the first 2½ minutes and putting together a 9-0 run to cut its deficit to five points. Senior Jae’Sean Tate stemmed the tide with a runner in the lane, but after Iowa answered with an Isaiah Moss jumper, Ohio State’s go-to guy took over.
Keita Bates-Diop put together a personal 8-0 run, and Iowa (9-8, 0-4) got no closer than nine points the rest of the way no matter how much McCaffery instructed his players to foul to stop the clock late.
“Coach talks about the upperclassmen, how ‘this is your team and if you want it to be successful, we have to do those things,’ ” BatesDiop said. “It feels good. My teammates put me in the right position, we called the right plays and everyone did the right thing. I just finished it.”
Added Andrew Dakich, “He’s our scorer. He’s our guy.”
Bates-Diop was in position to do so thanks to a number of key contributions. In relief of Jackson, Dakich dished out a career-high six assists — five in the first half — and had no turnovers.
Micah Potter finished with six points and five rebounds in his most effective game since suffering a high-ankle sprain in the fourth game of the season. Sophomore Andre Wesson drew a key first-half charge, one of three the Buckeyes took.
It helped the Buckeyes not only weather foul
trouble but succeed in spite of it. Holtmann said multiple players had their best week of practice in nearly a month.
“Our bench was really important for us tonight,” Holtmann said. “That’s probably the best our bench has played in quite some time, maybe all year.”
Holtmann is now the first Ohio State coach to win his first three Big Ten games. Two days removed from a 75-68 home loss to Michigan, Iowa has opened conference play with four straight losses for the first time since an 0-6 start in 2010-11, McCaffery’s first season.
Next for the Buckeyes: a home date Sunday with No. 1 Michigan State, which will come to Value City Arena riding a 14-game winning streak.