OSU HOOPS: Ohio State Falls To Florida 74-66 In NIT Second Round; Finish Season 21-14
Mar 20, 2016Buckeye Frosh JaQuan Lyle records third-career double-double with 19 points and 11 boards —
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) (March 20, 2016) — Dorian Finney-Smith had 16 points and 12 rebounds Sunday to help No. 2 seed Florida beat third-seeded Ohio State 74-66 in the second round of the NIT.
Kasey Hill added 15 points, Kevarrius Hayes scored 14 and Justin Leon 12. The Gators (21-14) opened the second half with a 16-4 run to lead 47-34 and then held on in the final 4:34 after the Buckeyes (21-14) narrowed the gap to seven.
Finney-Smith’s 3-pointer with 1:35 left made it 68-58 and the Gators made all six of their free throws from there. Florida advanced to the quarterfinals to face Monday’s Monmouth-George Washington winner on Wednesday.
Florida led the entire way after starting on a 9-0 run. Ohio State closed the first half with a 9-0 run to get within 31-30 but got no closer.
Marc Loving had 20 points, JaQuan Lyle scored 19 and Daniel Giddens added 11 for the Buckeyes.
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POSTGAME NOTES
No. 3 Ohio State 66 (21-14), No. 2 Florida 74 (21-14)
March 20, 2016
Value City Arena—Columbus, Ohio
GAME/SERIES
- This is Ohio State’s ninth trip to the National Invitation Tournament. The Buckeyes are 19-8 all-time in the event, winning the championship twice (1986, 2008).
- Ohio State is 11-3 at home in the NIT.
- Ohio State leads the all-time series with Florida 8-5. The Buckeyes are 4-1 in Columbus.
- Ohio State is 37-35 all-time vs. the current alignment on the Southeastern Conference.
TEAM
- Ohio State is 15-6 at home for the 2015-2016 season, making it the 12th straight season that Matta has won at least 15 home games with the Buckeyes. He has done so every year as head coach at Ohio State.
- Since 2005, Ohio State stands alone with the most home wins in the country with a record of 203-25 (.894).
- Ohio State saw three players score in double-figures: Loving (20), Lyle (19) and Giddens (11).
- Ohio State went 14-16 (.880) from the free throw line. That percentage is good for third-highest this season.
- Thad Matta is 320-108 during his career at Ohio State and 422-139 overall as a head coach.
- Matta is 6-1 coaching the Buckeyes in the NIT, with a 3-1 home record and 2-0 record at Madison Square Garden.
- Matta has guided the Buckeyes to postseason play in 11-consecutive attempts and in every year in which Ohio State was eligible.
- Matta’s teams have never failed to win 20 games in a season, a record streak (12 seasons) in Ohio State history. Additionally, Matta has never failed to reach the 20-win plateau in 16 years as a head coach.
- Matta is 3-3 vs. the Gators while coaching the Buckeyes.
- Matta is 62-22 (.744) in the month of March coaching the Buckeyes, the fifth best winning percentage among active coaches.
- Lyle recorded the third double-double of his career, scoring 19 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
- Lyle scored 391 points this season as a freshman. That total puts him as the ninth highest scorer as a freshman in Ohio State history. He passed Daequan Cook (2007) who scored 372 in his Freshman campaign.
- Lyle also finishes the year with the fourth most assists by a Buckeye freshman and the sixth most free-throws made by a freshman.
- Loving scored 20 points on 7-14 shooting to go along with four rebounds and an assist.
- This is the sixth time this season Loving has scored 20+ points in a game.
- Giddens tied a career-high in points with 11 and also grabbed six rebounds.
- Giddens rejected 3 shots, placing him fifth all-time in Ohio State history for total blocked shots in a season. Giddens finished with 50 blocked shots in his freshman campaign, the previous freshman to have 50+ blocked shots in a season was Kosta Koufos in 2008 with 67.
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POSTGAME QUOTES
Thad Matta, Ohio State head coach On how the season ended “One of the biggest things is this should serve as a humbling experience and how we define humility is knowing your strengths and your weaknesses, I think all of us need to commit to getting better.”
JaQuan Lyle, Ohio State guard On the future of the program We need to remember this feeling for next year and remember how you come out flat like that and how the game will end.
Marc Loving, Ohio State forward On preparing for next season “All the guys know each others game’s pretty well and we have a whole year of chemistry under our belt so we’ll be able to work on our game all the time, work on our game in the off-season and try to build to get consecutive wins.”
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