In a game that took the Ohio State Buckeyes (22-11) from late last Friday night all the way to early Saturday morning against the Siena Saints (27-8), the Buckeyes were outlasted in two overtimes to lose in the opening round of the NCAA tournament 74-72.
On this night, where nobody shot the ball well, the Buckeyes just didn’t have the legs, getting out-rebounded by the smaller Saints 51 to 34, including the 21 offensive rebounds to only 7 for the Buckeyes. With key Buckeyes have awful nights, even Evan Turner’s monstrous performance (25 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks) wasn’t enough to get those 3 extra points. Headlining the bad shooting night was Jon Diebler who went 2 for 12, and William Buford to hit only 4 of his 12 attempts from the field.
For Siena it was an unstoppable motor, and steady production from all of their starters, all of whom scored in the double-digits, that led the mid-major champion past the Buckeyes. Led in the end by Ryan Rossiter’s 16 points and 15 rebounds, and another double double by Alex Franklin (10 points, 13 rebounds) the Saints crashed the board all night, getting to most of the caroms seconds before a Buckeye player.
