Frazier sparks Illini victory over Ohio State
CHAMPAIGN - There are many ways to explain why Illinois, just inaugurated into the Top 25 for the first time in three years, dominated Ohio State on Tuesday night.
But a quick comparison of Illinois' Chester Frazier and Ohio State's Evan Turner sums it up the easiest.
The 6-foot-7 Turner hit the floor as the Big Ten's No. 3 scorer with 15 straight double-figure games.
Frazier, on the other hand, entered with 28 straight games without double figures against Big Ten foes.
So what happened?
The tenacious Frazier, despite giving up 6 inches to Turner, led the effort that limited the St. Joseph product to a season-low 4 points. Meanwhile, Frazier rang up 10 points on an uncharacteristically gluttonous 4-shot night to highlight a balanced Illini attack.
The 17-point difference between Frazier's and Turner's usual averages accounted for nearly all of the margin in Illinois' 67-49 whipping before 15,549 at Assembly Hall.
No. 25 Illinois (16-3, 4-2), which never trailed and got a game-high 15 points from Mike Tisdale, now shares second place in the league with Minnesota.
"Chester, he did a (heck) of a job on Evan tonight," said Illinois' Demetri McCamey, who has played with and against Turner since middle school. "He's one of the top small forwards in the country and Chester just went all out tonight.
"Denied him the ball, stripped him a couple times and got him a little frustrated. He couldn't get into a rhythm. Chester did a good job and also our team defense helped on him."
Frazier didn't need to be told he hadn't scored so much against a Big Ten team since March 8, 2007, when he hit Penn State with 21 in the conference tournament.
"I knew," said Frazier, who hit both of his 3-point attempts. "I just shot the ball when I was open."
He was much more expansive about his effort against Turner, which was modeled after his performance against Purdue's Robbie Hummel on Dec. 30.
Before both Purdue and Ohio State, assistant coach Jerrance Howard won the discussion with Bruce Weber over whether to clamp the undersized Frazier on the other team's best player despite the height disadvantage.
"Just tried to limit his touches," Frazier said. "He's the majority of the offense. He scores. He rebounds. He passes.
"He's pretty much the same type guy as (Hummel). Swing guy. Can get to the rack and post you up. My teammates helped me when he tried to drive on me."
Illinois' help defense worked so well against the Buckeyes (13-4, 3-3), the visitors wound up with a season-high 20 turnovers while finishing 1 point away from the season-low of 48 they had in a blowout loss to West Virginia.
"They just crowded the lane, and when I was going up they had a couple hands in my face and I just kicked it out," said Turner, who finished with 4 assists.
"I think our team got some good looks. We just didn't hit the shots. After awhile, it resulted in a West Virginia-type atmosphere. We started going 1-on-1 too much. That was pretty much it."