Kevin Noon
Managing Editor

COLUMBUS - Ohio State might want to take heed the next time it looks to schedule a team out of the MAC as the Bowling Green Falcons gave Thad Matta and his Buckeyes about all they could handle on Monday night and a pair of clutch free throws from David Lighty helped the Buckeyes hold on to a slim lead and a 61-57 win.

Associated Press
The Buckeyes had problems all night long with the Falcons.

Jon Diebler led the Buckeyes with 17 points and Evan Turner had 12 in the win while Dallas Lauderdale did a little bit of everything with eight points, seven rebounds and six blocks. They helped make up for a shortage of production from Lighty who was held scoreless in the first half and only had four points on 1-5 shooting from the field.

"Excited to get out with a win tonight," Matta said. "For whatever reason and Bowling Green probably had a lot to do with it… we weren't executing the way we needed to at the beginning. (Play) calls weren't getting to everybody on the floor and we didn't have a really good flow about us."

Ohio State had a lead of 13 points at the 15 minute mark of the second half but watched BG chip into the lead with Brian Moten's 16 points and Darryl Clement's 13 points. The Falcons brought and experienced team into the VCA and the Buckeyes knew that it would be far from a cakewalk going against BG.

"They are an excellent team," Diebler said. "They played extremely hard tonight and one thing about them is they are experienced."

Bowling Green tied the game up at the 6:48 mark with a pair of free throws to knot it up at 46-all and then took the lead with a Nate Miller jumper. Was there any fear for the Buckeyes especially being such a young team?

"I think we had full confidence because we practice so hard," Turner said. "When you practice as hard as we do, you build confidence."

One could say that the Buckeyes gave blood, sweat and tears in the game, or at least two out of the three when Evan Turner had to leave the game with a bloody jersey and came back wearing No. 25 because of having taken a shot to the face. How did the injury occur?

"When we were trapping (David Lighty) hit me with his hand and I don't know what happened," Turner said. "It was my first ever bloody nose and it was kind of gross and cool at the same time (laugh)."

The Buckeyes roared back and took a seven point lead on Lighty's lone jumper of the night but BG would keep pecking away. BG had a chance to tie at the 32 second mark when Joe Jakubowski missed a three pointer. Turner and Lighty each hit big free throws to ice it.

"Coach just told us to keep coming at them," Lighty said. "That's why we wake up at 5 in the morning in the summertime and all the conditioning and all the running that is what that was for."

But coach Matta know that he had to count on Lighty to step up.

"Fortunately (for) Dave the light went on and he did what he is supposed to do," Matta said. "Dave has to come realize there are a lot o f times out there where guys are looking for help and Dave has got to be a guy who can provide that for them."
Lighty joked after the game about having the pressure on him to hit the pair of free throws, especially being only in a one-and-one scenario.

"I missed the first three so I had to make something," Lightly joked. "I just made them at the right time, we needed them. "

Matta gave his team a mixed report card after the game with moments of good followed by moments of bad.

"I think we had some stretches in there where we played pretty good basketball both offensively and defensively," Matta said. "We are not going to hold a team like Bowling Green scoreless and we are not going to score every time down but what we have got to strive for and I think teams across the country are looking for is consistency and having a pretty decent flow to them of what they are trying to get done."

The young Buckeyes know that games like this will mean a lot as the season goes on.

"When you go up against an experienced team it is going to help us a lot in the long run," Diebler said.

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