COLUMBUS, Ohio (Nov. 28, 2009) – The Ohio State men's basketball team shot 63 percent from the field and held a 44-25 advantage in rebounds to defeat Saint Francis 110-47 on Saturday night at Value City Arena.
The Buckeyes scored 16 of the game's first 19 points and never looked back with six players scoring in double figures.
The Red Flash were led by junior forward Cedric Latimer (Los Angeles, CA /Windward) (Los Angeles, Calif. / Windward), who put in 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Senior Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) added 10 points, five rebounds and a steal, and freshmen Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) (Cleveland, Ohio / Lutheran East) and Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J. / Atlantic City) had nine and eight points, respectively.
Ohio State, ranked 18th in the nation by ESPN/USA Today, improved to 5-1 on the year, while Saint Francis dropped to 1-5. The Red Flash will have four days to regroup before beginning Northeast Conference play against Wagner, at 7 p.m. on Thursday night, at DeGol Arena.
“We came in here expecting to compete and play hard,” said Saint Francis head coach Don Friday. “Ohio State just had us over-matched in every area. There are no excuses. We will practice hard this week, and we will be ready to open conference play against Wagner on Thursday night.”
The Red Flash struggled from the outset, making just two of their first 15 field goal attempts. By then, the Buckeyes had a 30-7 lead. Ohio State took a 52-22 lead into halftime, and came out of the break on an 18-2 run to make it 70-24 with 15:59 remaining.
The Buckeyes were led by Jeremie Simmons with 18 points, while Jon Diebler made 5-of-7 three point attempts for 17 points. Evan Turner failed for the first time this season to post a double-double or triple-double in adding in 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists. OSU had a big size advantage over the Red Flash and used it to their advantage with 11 blocks in the game.
