Deshaun Thomas scored a career-high 31 points along with 12 rebounds as Ohio State won big over Loyola-Maryland, 78-59.
William Buford scored 17 and Jared Sullinger 12 points while Aaron Craft scored eight points.
Ohio State will face a much stronger opponent in Gonzaga this Saturday.
Ohio State head coach Thad Matta after the game said: “Well, obviously this tournament is about advancing, and that’s what we did tonight, We shot the ball great in the second half, but our turnovers were detrimental to the flow of our offense. We got to get ourselves ready to go. Obviously with what Gonzaga did tonight, we got another great challenge on Saturday.”
Loyola had hoped to come out with a lot of energy and take advantage of fast break points but they failed to do so. Ohio State’s size inside couldn’t be stopped as the Buckeyes led 42-31 at halftime.
The Buckeyes only shot 34 percent in the first half, but shot nearly 61 percent from the floor the final 20 minutes.
On a side note, coach Jimmy Pastos is one intense guy. He seems so calm in the locker room but on the floor he’s an animal. The Buckeyes will really need shoot and defend better this Saturday as they face Gonzaga.
