The Ohio State Buckeyes may have lost to the Michigan Wolverines back on Feb. 18, as part of a late-season slump, but when it comes to the Big Ten Tournament - in other words, when it counts - they dominated from start to finish en route to a 77-55 victory. Jared Sullinger scored 24 points with six rebounds, while shooting a stellar 9-for-13 from the field, and dropping in all six of his free throw attempts to lead the way for Ohio State.
Ohio State dominated this one early - taking a commanding 34-21 lead into the second half. They scored 10-straight points at the very beginning of the game to jump ahead and were in control from then on out. There was similar domination in the second half, putting up 43 against Michigan's 34 in that frame. It was domination through and through, with the Buckeyes in control on both sides of the ball.
Deshaun Thomas had a strong day behind Sullinger for the Buckeyes, with 22 points and shooting 10-of-15 from the field, with two three-pointers on top of that. Michigan was seemingly without Trey Burke all game, who missed all six of his three-point attempts and shot a paltry 1-for-13 from the field. He picked up a couple rebounds, but was also terrible in turnovers (eight, a career-high), and had a measly five points on the night altogether.
Instead, it was Tim Hardaway Jr. who led the way for the Wolverines, though he didn't have much to show for it: shooting 3-for-11 from the field and missing all of his shots from range en route to 13 points, helped along solely by the fact that he saw the free-throw line nine times (and was successful from it seven).
It's the third-straight year that Ohio State has bested Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament, and the wins seem to keep getting better. Next, the Buckeyes will take on Michigan State, who they bested 72-70 in their most recent outing, just a week ago on March 4, though they did lose to them on Feb. 11 by 10 points.
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