Sports feeds
E-mail sports alerts
DDN sports mobile
Sports TwitterFinal Four a reality for Buckeyes
With contributions from freshmen and veterans, Ohio State pulls away from Memphis late for a 92-76 victory.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
SAN ANTONIO — From the podium Saturday after his Ohio State Buckeyes won the NCAA tournament's South Regional basketball championship, Thad Matta's view was just peachy.
Atlanta peachy. Final Four peachy.
Extras
"Three years ago, we talked about a vision for this program," the coach told the OSU part of the 26,260 fans at the Alamodome. "It just became a reality."
The No. 1-ranked Buckeyes used a 20-8 second-half run to bounce No. 2-seeded Memphis, 92-76.
Ohio State (34-3) has won 21 straight and play today's North Carolina-Georgetown winner Saturday at the Georgia Dome.
It's Ohio State's first official Final Four appearance since 1968 (the 1999 trip was stricken by the NCAA). The veterans and an impressive recruiting class delivered on the Final Four dream.
"It was a goal of ours," freshman center Greg Oden said. "Now that we are going, we have a lot of work to do. We want to win."
The Buckeyes had a balanced attack. Ron Lewis scored 22, Mike Conley Jr. 19, Oden 17, Jamar Butler 12, Daequan Cook nine and David Lighty seven.
Led by Jeremy Hunt's 26 points, Memphis (33-4) hung around and led 56-51. But that deficit pales to what OSU rallied from against Xavier and Tennessee. After OSU's 20-8 run, Memphis got not closer than 78-72.
OSU was buoyed by Oden's 87.5 percent shooting, hustle plays and making 20 straight free throws. The Buckeyes enjoyed a rare relaxing final few minutes.
Matta credited the vets and rookies. "This is the vision we were selling them on — help us rebuild the Ohio State University basketball program," he said.
"And as I hugged them out there, I said thank you for believing in us, and believing in the vision that we had."
