DaytonDailyNews.com

ATLANTA — Let Roy Hibbert have the head-to-head victory Saturday at the Georgia Dome. Greg Oden will take the shot at a national title.

Both Georgetown's 7-foot-2 Hibbert and Ohio State's 7-foot Oden had four fouls during Ohio State's 67-60 national semifinal win.

"I just had to make smarter decisions when I'm out there," Hibbert said. "I need to be a better player when it comes to knowing when to foul and when not to foul."

Hibbert had 19 points, six rebounds, a block, an assist and two turnovers in 24 minutes. Oden had 13 points, nine boards, two turnovers, a block and a steal in 20 minutes.

"I think the buildup between those two going head-to-head is natural," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. "They are, you know, two of the best, if not the two best, big guys, low-post centers out there."

Georgetown held a 49-38 scoring advantage when Roy Hibbert was on the court, including 35-23 in the second half.

"He's so big," said Oden, adding that he needs to think for 20-30 minutes about losing the individual battle. "You just don't want to get dunked on. It's great to play against somebody my size. But he's so big and hard to guard. He told me that I was big. That was kind of funny."

Neither guy got to really show all his tools, but Ohio State played better without Oden than Georgetown did without Hibbert.

"Everybody looks at me," Oden said of Ohio State's reputation. "Those (teammates) have been doing it all year."

Nearly poster-ized

Oden took off from far away in the lane and tried to dunk on Georgetown's Jeff Green. He missed what would have been an all-time highlight dunk, but a foul was called on Green. Oden hit one free throw.

"I was out for 17 minutes (in the first half)," Oden said. "I wanted to get in there and just tear the rim down, you know.

"If I would have made it, it would have been on the One Shining Moment tape. That would have been great."

Almost perfect

Ron Lewis, the NCAA tournament's leading scorer through four games, finally missed a tourney free throw.

Lewis hit his first three foul shots Saturday before missing 8:10 before halftime.

"That was real shocking," Lewis said. "But I can't dwell on it."

After being hit in the face, Lewis sunk two big bonus free throws with 35.3 seconds left and two more with 16.8 remaining to help OSU ice it. He is 28 of 29 in the tourney.

Lucky and good

Ohio State could have been at home if Lewis doesn't hit a 3-pointer against Xavier in the second round. Down 20 to Tennessee, the Buckeyes could have folded.

Instead, OSU is in the championship game and Thompson III said it's no fluke.

"Teams that play on Monday night in April find a way to make luck happen," he said. "You know, they made the plays when they needed them to be made."

Rematch

Florida defeated Ohio State 86-60 in December. But that was then.

"I think our focus is totally different than the first time we played them," Ivan Harris said. "We were out of sorts a little bit."

Always football season

OSU students cheered when a camera showed football coach Jim Tressel sitting in the crowd next to ex-receiver Anthony Gonzalez. The future NFL player even gave the crowd an OH-IO gesture.

Greg Oden soundbite

Oden on what it means to make Monday's national championship game. "It means no more practice. Well, one more practice. No more hard practice. That?s the hard part of it."