COLUMBUS — If the rest of the starts by Shannon Scott and LaQuinton Ross go like the first
one, No. 11 Ohio State won’t have any problem having a superlative season.Scott scored a career-high 16
points and Ross, also starting for the first time as a junior, had 14 points and a personal-best 11
rebounds to lead the Buckeyes past Morgan State 89-50 on Saturday.Asked which career high most pleased
him, coach Thad Matta refused to choose.“Quite honestly, both. For Shannon, him seeing the ball go
through the basket, you see that hard work pay off that obviously gives you that boost of confidence,”
Matta said. “For LaQuinton, we knew we were losing a great rebounder in Deshaun (Thomas). That’s one of
the things we’ve questioned about this team — where’s the rebounding going to come from? He did a very
nice job of rebounding out of his area. We’re going to need that from him.”Lenzelle Smith Jr. led the
way with 18 points and spurred a first-half spurt for the Buckeyes, who improved to 93-18 in home
openers and 89-22 in season debuts.Much of the drama vanished early after Ohio State scored the first
eight points and built a 26-point halftime lead.Sam Thompson added 14 points and freshman Marc Loving
had 10 for Ohio State. Scott had seven assists to go with his 16 points, while Ross registered his first
career double-double.“(That balance) makes it really hard for our team to be guarded,” said Scott, the
son of legendary North Carolina and NBA star Charlie Scott. “They really can’t focus in on one player.
Everybody on the court is capable of scoring now.”The Buckeyes are coming off a 29-8 season in which
they tied for second in the Big Ten with a 13-5 record.Ohio State returns four starters: Amir Williams,
Aaron Craft, Smith and Thompson. Ross, who blossomed in the NCAA tournament last year as a reserve, is
expected to step into the spot vacated by the early departure of Thomas, last year’s Big Ten scoring
leader.For him to also do the job on the boards was a double-bonus.“We’ve been working on rebounding a
lot in practices, just because our team is really not that big,” said the 6-foot-8 Ross, a wing or even
a big guard on offense. “You see we’ve got one 6-10 guy (Williams) and the rest of our guys are
perimeter players. We’ve definitely been working on everybody pitching in and getting rebounds. It’s
something I just did tonight.”Just as he had in a 93-63 exhibition victory over Walsh last Sunday, Matta
brought Thompson off the bench and inserted Scott into the starting lineup. The combination of the quick
Scott and physical Craft gives the Buckeyes one of the best pairings of defensive guards in the
country.Plus, Thompson provided a lift off the bench.Morgan State, coming off a 17-15 overall record and
a 10-6 mark in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, won eight of its last nine games last season under
eighth-year coach Todd Bozeman, formerly at California.But the Bears had difficulty matching up with
Ohio State. Justin Black had 13 points, Ian Chiles 12 and Anthony Hubbard 11 for Morgan State, which was
meeting the Buckeyes for the first time.“We knew obviously coming into the game that with them being
ranked they would be a tough opponent,” Bozeman said. “Then Scott got it going right out of the box
making 3s and that kind of loosens things up.”Scott hit three 3-pointers — a career high for a game — in
the first 2:05 to power an 11-2 lead.Ohio State overcame some expected rough patches. At times, there
was a disconnect on offense as the Buckeyes try to figure out who will take the shots and score the
points provided by Thomas, who left after his junior year for the NBA draft.They did not hit a field
goal for 4 1/2 minutes during one stretch — then came back to reel off seven points in 90 seconds.Down
just 29-19 after a 3 by Blake Bozeman, the coach’s son, at the 6:41 mark, things spiraled out of control
for the Bears as the Buckeyes went on a 16-0 run.Smith hit two 3s and added a layup for eight points,
with backup center Trey McDonald adding four points in the surge, which finally ended with 46 seconds
left when Dontre Pretlow hit a 3 for Morgan State.“That is just our brand of basketball, five guys being
connected out there,” Smith said. “Our defense is what turns our offense to being so good. We come down,
we get a stop, it ignites us.”It was a starting point for the Buckeyes.“It’s the first game of the year,
we’ve got a long season ahead and we’re going to continue doing what we did tonight,” Ross said.