Turner’s long 3 at buzzer lifts Buckeyes
March 12, 2010
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)—Evan Turner’s accuracy was off, and the player widelyregarded as one of the nation’s best was becoming visibly frustrated in thefinal minutes.
When the game clock showed 2.2 seconds, those issues no longer mattered.
Turner took an inbounds pass, dribbled upcourt and drained a 37-footer atthe buzzer to give No. 5 Ohio State a 69-68 win over Michigan on Friday in theBig Ten tournament quarterfinals.
“You can’t really practice for those moments, you just have to come out andcome ready,” he said.
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The Big Ten player of the year left his arm in the air after the release,confident that the long shot would fall.
“I was just trying to get the ball up and get it in shooting range and keepmy follow-through, and it went in,” he said modestly.
Turner finished with 18 points and eight assists for the Buckeyes (25-7),who advanced to play Illinois in the semifinals on Saturday. The Fighting Illinibeat No. 13 Wisconsin 58-54 on Friday afternoon.
Turner’s final attempt was so close to the buzzer that the play wasreviewed. When the officials signaled the shot was good, the red-clad section ofthe crowd erupted.
Ohio State coach Thad Matta said he wasn’t sure the Buckeyes deserved suchgood fortune.
“It’s funny because I was so mad kind of at how we had played throughoutthe course of the game. But as he let it go, I thought, `That thing has got achance to go in,’ ” he said. “As it kept going, going, going, boom, went in,and obviously I’m not sure it was supposed to go in with how we had played for39 minutes and 57.8 seconds, but fortunately it did.”
Turner had shot 1 for 8 in the second half, but took the biggest shot of thegame without hesitation. He was surprised that no one impeded his progress as hedribbled up the court.
“Honestly I thought they were going to press or something like that,”Turner said. “The whole game, they were swarming me. They gave me one goodlook. Being open felt a little bit free. I felt like I was in the gym bymyself.”
Michigan coach John Beilein thought the shot was good right away.
“It’s not the first time I’ve heard that buzzer and saw that ball go in,and son of a gun, it looked in from the get-go, as well.”
Michigan’s Manny Harris hit a jumper from 11 feet with 2.2 seconds left togive Michigan a 68-66 lead. Harris led the Wolverines (15-17) with 26 points,and his big performance made the final result all the more disappointing for theWolverines.
“It definitely hurt,” Harris said. “We were excited (after his shot), butat the same time we knew anything could happen. They had two seconds, a lot oftime to shoot and score, and that’s what Evan Turner did.”
Michigan began the season ranked 15th, but Friday’s game was representativeof the season for Wolverines.
“That’s a great catch phrase, microcosm of the season,” Beilein said.“That’s a little bit of the frustration that we have this year. Some thingsthat you can’t always control happen to you. It’s certainly indicative of somethings that happened.”
David Lighty and William Buford each scored 15 points for Ohio State. StuDouglass and DeShawn Sims each had 16 points for Michigan.
The Buckeyes led 39-29 early in the second half before back-to-back3-pointers by Douglass chopped the Buckeyes’ lead to 39-35.
Another 3 by Douglass trimmed Ohio State’s lead to 42-38, but Ohio Stateresponded with a 9-0 run. A 3-pointer by Turner capped the spurt midway throughthe second half.
Michigan surged again, and a 3-pointer by Harris while fading away frombeyond the key cut Ohio State’s lead to 59-57, leading to the frantic finalminutes.
Matta wasn’t happy the Buckeyes let Michigan back in the game, and he hopeshis team learned from the experience.
“Hopefully this game can shake us, some of the cobwebs out, and get us backon track,” he said.