Eagles Fall To Ohio State, 78-54

Columbus, Ohio–Ohio State used a 14-1 run late in the first half and placed five players in double figures enroute to a 78-54 win Sunday afternoon over the Winthrop Eagles in the first meeting ever between the two schools.

With Winthrop (1-1) staying close at 28-25 and 4:46 left in the opening period, senior guard Brian Brown ignited the run as he scored eight points and dished out an assist to give Ohio State (1-0) a comfortable 42-26 lead at intermission.

The Eagles had just cut an eight point deficit to three when Marcus Stewart converted one of two free throws before Brown, who led the Buckeyes with 15 points, took over the game.

"We had a turnover or two during that stretch, but basically they made shots and we missed shots," said Winthrop head coach Gregg Marshall. "Shooting and the ability to score right now is a problem, but we will continue to work on that throughout the course of the year. The problem defensively was that they hit on 53 percent of their shots and that’s not the Winthrop way. We’ve got to address, find out why and get better in that part of our game."

While Ohio State was shooting well, Winthrop struggled from the field connecting on just 38 percent (19-50) and were even worse from beyond the 3-point arc with 3 of 18 for 17 percent. The Buckeyes finished the night with an 8 of 14 performance from three-point range. Ohio State hit its first four treys as Boban Savovic, who finished with 14 points, hit his first two 3-pointers to give the Buckeyes an early 10-5 lead in the first three minutes and 46 seconds of the game.

Winthrop bounced back to tie the game with five unanswered points on a jumper by Tyrone Walker, the game’s leading scorer with 16, and three from Greg Lewis, who finished with 15 points and a game-high 7 rebounds. Back-to-back jumpers by OSU’s Will Dudley and Brown regained the lead for good.

The Eagles and Buckeyes played evenly for the first ten minutes of the second half as Tywan Harris’s 3-pointer cut the OSU lead to 15 at 54-39 with 10:36 left in the game, but a 11-0 Buckeye surge over a three-minute period put the game out of Winthrop’s reach at 65-39 at the 8:14 mark.

Ohio State also won the rebounding battle 31-30 and forced the Eagles into 16 turnovers while committing only 10. In addition to Brown and Savovic, OSU’s Sean Connolly and Brent Darby scored 11 points each while Will Dudley had 10. No other Eagles besides Walker and Lewis were in double digits. The Winthrop duo combined for 11 of 23 shooting from the floor while the remainder of the team combined for 8 of 27.

Winthrop’s next game will be Saturday night when the Eagles travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to face the Cornhuskers