COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State coach Thad Matta helped his former assistant, John Groce, get the job at Illinois. Now Groce and the Fighting Illini may have done a return favor to Matta and the Buckeyes by forcing them out of a leaky zone defense. D’Angelo Russell scored 22 points, including eight during a decisive 15-0 second-half run, to lead No. 20 Ohio State past Illinois 77-61 on Saturday. The Buckeyes (12-3, 1-1 Big Ten) trailed by eight in the first half and by three in the early minutes of the second. They turned the tide with an attacking, opportunistic man-to-man defense instead of the 2-3 zone they’d played all season. “They shot us out of it, to be honest with you,” Matta said, referring in particular to Rayvonte Rice who scored 20 points on 7 of 8 shooting. “It’s like we told our guys, it wasn’t like they were shooting 21-footers. They were shooting from 24 feet and they were going in.” Sam Thompson and Marc Loving each added 13 points for the Buckeyes (12-3, 1-1 Big Ten), who bounced back from a conference-opening, 71-65 loss at home to Iowa on Tuesday. “You can sell out a little more, pressure the ball a little more,” said Thompson of the Buckeyes’ aggressiveness in the second half that led to 13 Illinois turnovers. “We just wanted to fly around and try and disrupt them.” The Illini (10-5, 0-2) didn’t score from Kendrick Nunn’s 3 at the 16:33 mark until Nnanna Egwu hit two foul shots with 11:06 remaining. After Russell hit a 3 to tie it, substitute big man Trey McDonald made two free throws for the Buckeyes’ first lead of the day. Loving scored three points and Thompson tipped in an inbounds pass before Russell saved a ball going out of bounds by flipping it behind his back to Loving, who then passed to Russell for an easy layup. Russell’s 3 after a five-second call on an Illinois inbounds play made it 56-44. …
Continue Reading: MEN’S BASKETBALL: Russell spurs No. 20 Ohio State by Illinois 77-61
