Buckeyes ground Flyers in NIT

Ohio State’s season will end where it started.

Kosta Koufos scored 21 points and Jamar Butler added 12 to lead the Buckeyes past the Dayton Flyers 74-63 Wednesday night in an NIT quarterfinal game in Columbus, Ohio.

The Buckeyes (22-13) advance to meet Mississippi (24-10) in the NIT semifinals at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

Ohio State won three games in the NIT Season Tip-Off before losing to Texas A&M 70-47 in the championship game at the Garden on Nov. 23.

Evan Turner added 11 points and Jon Diebler came off the bench to score 10 more, all in the second half, for the Buckeyes, who have won five of their last six games.

The game was played before a loud, capacity crowd of 19,049 at Value City Arena, with Dayton fans making up at least a quarter of those in attendance. It was the sixth-largest crowd to witness the Flyers play and was the biggest they have played in front of in 13 years.

Brian Roberts had 20 points and Chris Wright 12 for the Flyers (23-11), who were trying to make their first trip to the NIT semifinals since 1968.

Mississippi 81, Virginia Tech 72: Chris Warren scored five of his 22 points during a 9-0 second-half run and the Rebels beat the Hokies in an NIT quarterfinal game in Blacksburg, Va.

Ole Miss (24-10) led 51-49 with 10:49 to play before Warren’s layup sparked the burst. He later added a 3-pointer, Eniel Polynice hit a jumper and Kenny Williams made a layup to cap the spurt, which gave the Rebels a 60-49 led with 8:22 to play.

The Hokies (21-14), who got 23 points from Deron Washington in the final game of his college career, never got closer than seven thereafter in a game that wasn’t really as close as the score. Virginia Tech was outrebounded 46-23 and shot less than 40 percent.

CBI

Jeremy Crouch had 27 points, including a 3-pointer that sparked a run that blew open a close game, as Bradley beat Virginia 96-85 in the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational in Charlottesville, Va.

Crouch’s 3-pointer with 11:42 to play sparked a 19-5 run that ended with Bradley (20-15) up 80-63 with just less than five minutes remaining. Crouch hit three of his five 3-pointers during that run, and he finished shooting 9 of 18 and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line.

Virginia (17-16) led by as many as 14 in the first half.

Tulsa 73, Houston 69: Ben Uzoh scored 22 points and Jerome Jordan added 18 points and 15 rebounds as the Golden Hurricane (23-13) edged their Conference USA rival Cougars (24-10) in Tulsa, Okla., to reach the championship round.

Tulsa (23-13) will play Bradley in a best-of-3 championship round beginning Monday in Tulsa.

The teams have not met since Tulsa was a member of the Missouri Valley Conference in the 1995-96 season.