Ohio State outlasts UC Santa Barbara 68-51

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Evan Turner took a back seat to slick shooter Jon Diebler and big forward Dallas Lauderdale, and Ohio State outlasted persistent UC Santa Barbara 68-51 in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday night.

Diebler scored 23 points and Lauderdale blocked a career-high eight shots and grabbed 12 rebounds for the second-seeded Buckeyes (28-7), who won without much offense from their top player. Turner was held to nine points while going 2 of 13 from the field — one of the worst shooting performances of his career.

Turner did have 10 rebounds, and William Buford added 16 points for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State advanced to play Sunday against No. 10 seed Georgia Tech, which beat seventh-seeded Oklahoma State 64-59 in Midwest Regional play earlier Friday evening.

Orlando Johnson scored 20 points for No. 15 seed UC Santa Barbara (20-10).

Diebler's performance was particularly impressive, given the fact that he spent the week fighting off flulike symptoms.

"I knew I was going to be fine," he said. "Yesterday I felt a little better after the practice — after I threw up."

Joked Buckeyes coach Thad Matta, "He's the only guy that takes the 24-hour flu to 72 hours."

The game was expected to be a showcase for Turner, the Big Ten player of the year and widely regarded as perhaps the best player in the country.

Instead, the most impressive parts of Ohio State's game were a sampling of swatted shots and a couple of big dunks by Lauderdale, and the stellar outside shooting of Diebler, who was 7 of 12 from 3-point range.

Turner, meanwhile, seemed to have a rough night against the Gauchos' matchup zone defense.

"Evan, he was struggling a little bit but also did a good job of finding the open guy," Diebler said. "We knew coming in they (use) unique zones. We felt there were ways we could attack it."

But Turner did leave the floor with something he didn't have before: a win in the NCAA tournament.

"You can't really get mad," he said. "Everybody played well, it's a good — a great way to start off a tournament. We're definitely trying to move on and get to the next game."

The Buckeyes didn't make it to the tournament in his freshman year, then lost in the first round last season. Returning to the tournament this year, Ohio State vowed it wouldn't come out flat.