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No. 2 Ohio State remains unblemished, tops Indiana

Jan 1, 2011 - 3:03 AM Bloomington, IN (Sports Network) - William Buford scored 24 points while freshman sensation Jared Sullinger added 19 points and nine rebounds as second-ranked Ohio State opened Big Ten play by defeating Indiana, 85-67, at Assembly Hall.

Buford made 5-of-7 shots from three-point range for the hot-shooting Buckeyes (14-0, 1-0 Big Ten), who knocked down 13-of-19 from long distance en route to a fifth straight win over the Hoosiers.

"We are constantly striving for good inside to outside ball movement," Ohio State coach Thad Matta responded when asked about how well his team shot. "I thought our guys did a great job of remaining patient and getting the ball into the post. We know Jared (Sullinger) will throw the ball outside a lot and our guys were hitting from the outside."

Jon Diebler also made five triples to account for his 15 points while David Lighty contributed 11 points and five assists for the Buckeyes, who are off to their best start since opening the 1990-91 campaign with 17 straight wins.

"They beat you on the pass more than they beat you on anything else," Indiana head coach Tom Crean said. "It starts with Diebler, he's as good a shooter as there is in the country. The ball continually finds him back because of the way he finds other people."

Christian Watford scored 17 points and Victor Oladipo supplied 14 points and six boards for the Hoosiers (9-6, 0-2), who have lost their last four games.

Diebler's three-pointer ignited an 11-2 run that extended Ohio State's lead to 22-8 just over six minutes into the game.

Indiana drew to within seven once and nine on two occasions before Sullinger scored the last six Buckeyes points over the final three minutes of the half to push the margin to 46-33 at the intermission.

The Buckeyes made 15-of-21 from the floor, including 7-of-11 from three-point territory, in the first 20 minutes.

Ohio State's advantage hovered between 12 and 17 for the most of the second half until a Buford triple extended the margin to 72-52 with 8:41 to play.

The lead grew to 21 on a Diebler trifecta less than a minute later and the visitors were never really threatened for the remainder of the game.

Game Notes

Sullinger was 9-of-12 from the foul line as the Buckeyes made 26-of-38 at the charity stripe in comparison to the Hoosiers, who went 8-of-14 at the line. Ohio State improved to 55-42 in conference openers and to 36-59 in their initial conference road game...The Buckeyes have won their last seven Big Ten road games...Ohio State's last five-game win streak over Indiana was from February 5, 1968 - February 14, 1970...The Bucks are 11-0 when scoring 70 points or more and 5-0 when making 10-or-more triples...Diebler has 304 career trifectas and is four away from tying Penn State's Joe Crispin for fifth all- time in Big Ten history...He passed Larry Siegfried and Ronnie Stokes to move into 26th on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,241 points...Indiana leads the all-time series, 99-73, including a 60-23 mark in Bloomington...The Hoosiers were 9-of-24 from long distance.