COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Beat the worst team on your schedule, and get out of the game healthy. That was Ohio State's objective on Tuesday night against The Citadel.
Check. Check. The Buckeyes beat the Bulldogs, 94-65, in Value City Arena, stretching their winning streak to five games with No. 5 North Carolina up next on Saturday in New Orleans.
"We tried to concentrate on staying in the moment as much as possible," Buckeyes coach Chris Holtmann said. "I think bottom line is we need to respect every opponent, because the reality is you can lose at any time. I think you see that every night in college basketball. It was good to see our guys have the right approach heading into our last two non-conference games."
The Citadel (5-7) is among the worst teams in college basketball, a young team and a military school with limited size. The Buckeyes' wide margin of victory doesn't quite paint an accurate picture of the night, as Ohio State had some turnover trouble in stretches, some general disorganization and some questionable shot selection, shooting 35 3-pointers against a team that was at a significant size disadvantage.
But that wasn't going to matter much in this matchup.
As far as tune-ups for UNC go, it could have been crisper. But Ohio State had things in order by the end of the game, and rolled to another win, comfortably disposing of another over-matched low-major opponent. They've rolled in every one of these games, which hasn't been the case over the last few seasons.
"We always preach you can get better or worse each day," senior guard Andrew Dakich said. "We've seen teams in here who are mid-majors and beat us. When I was Michigan, we lost to NJIT. We have to match their intensity, and come out swinging every night."
Things got sluggish in spurts, despite the Buckeyes being mostly dominant and pulling ahead by 20 at the midway point of the first half. Ohio State shared the ball better than it has all season, with a season-high 27 assists on 37 made field goals.
The Citadel shot 32 percent, a season-low for an Ohio State opponent this year, and turned the ball over 16 times. Ohio State had a 22-2 edge in fast-break points.
Keita Bates-Diop and Kam Williams led the Buckeyes with 17 points each. C.J. Jackson had 13 points and seven assists.
When it was over
Despite The Citadel's poor first-half shooting (23 percent from the floor, 20 percent from 3-point range), Ohio State was having a difficult time pulling away through the game's first 10 minutes. Then a 15-0 Buckeye run that spanned five minutes gave Ohio State the cushion it needed for the comfortable win.
A strong one-handed dunk from Jae'Sean Tate off a baseline drive put the Buckeyes up 35-15 with 5:15 left in the first half.
Buckeyes getting healthy
Sophomore center Micah Potter played his most extended minutes since suffering a high ankle sprain in November. He finished with four points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes. Freshman forward Kyle Young, who returned last Saturday after being sidelined one game with a low ankle sprain, had four points and eight rebounds in 12 minutes.
"(Potter) is clearly rusty," Holtmann said. "I think that's obvious. But that's to be expected. It's more than I would probably want. He needed to play tonight and shake off some rust. He's gotta get back into a rhythm, and that might take a few weeks ... It's no one's fault that he got injured, but he's gotta earn his minutes back. So does Kyle. The way you do that is you come in and you impact winning. That's true for anyone who gets injured."
What it means
Ohio State (10-3) is on a roll going into this game against UNC. It wasn't guaranteed that this would be the case when the schedule first came out. But a pair of wins over Wisconsin and Michigan jump-started this run, and the Buckeyes didn't fool around in wins over William & Mary, Appalachian State and The Citadel.
So they have an opportunity. The last time Ohio State played a team of this caliber, it was run off the floor by Gonzaga at the PK80 Invitational in Oregon. That was a de facto home game for the Zags, getting UNC in New Orleans will be a little different.
"I think people have sensed that this team right now has pretty good chemistry," Holtmann said. "We're gonna go through -- I keep going back to our 4-0 start, and then we got really humbled out in Portland in our first game by a team that's flat out better. We'll go through some difficult moments for sure but I have sensed that people have enjoyed watching this relatively new team forge an identity."
The Buckeyes will be over-matched going into that game. There's no getting around that. But they're playing about as well as they could have hoped at this point of the schedule. And with Potter and Young seemingly all the way back, they'll have a full allotment of players for when they play Carolina.
What's next?
Ohio State is back on the road this weekend, heading to New Orleans where it will play No. 5 North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic. The 1:30 p.m. tip will be televised by CBS.