After watching his team struggle to make baskets in losing two of three games, coach Thad Matta said he wanted to see his players get “more into attack mode” on offense.

Ohio State was into it from the jump last night, and Illinois was the road kill.

The eighth-ranked Buckeyes rebounded decisively from their loss at Michigan on Saturday by making 11 of their first 12 shots from the field, building a 20-point lead in the first

10 minutes and cruising to an 83-67 victory in Value City Arena.

Ohio State shot 65.3 percent from the field, making 32 of 49 shots, including 7 of 13 from three-point range. The Buckeyes had shot 44 percent or lower in five of their past six games. It was their second-best field-goal percentage of the season.

“It was obviously good to see the ball go in early,” Matta said. “I thought we had good shots, I thought we got the ball moving, and we were able to get out and get some easy buckets because of our defense. That was delightful to see, trust me.”

Deshaun Thomas scored 19 points and William Buford 17 to lead Ohio State (23-5, 11-4 Big Ten), which remained tied for second place in the conference with Michigan. OSU is a game in the loss column behind Michigan State, which plays tonight at Minnesota.

Aaron Craft had 11 points, five assists and three steals for the Buckeyes. Craft played more off the ball as Matta made Shannon Scott the first guard off the bench and played him 22 minutes in place of Lenzelle Smith Jr. Scott did not score but had four assists, a steal and three rebounds.

Matta said he used Scott to put “another attacker” on the floor, “another guy who could make plays.”

“The Big Ten is what we term a ‘load the box’ (league), and (teams) are constantly living in that (defensive) help position,” Matta said. “I think Shannon does a great job of understanding when to (penetrate) and when not to. He obviously did that, and Lenzelle and Aaron were able to get in there, as well.”

The three combined for 12 of Ohio State’s 16 assists.

Illinois coach Bruce Weber said adding Scott to the rotation also allowed Matta to use Sam Thompson in relief of Buford rather than Smith. Buford played 26 minutes, his fewest in 13 games.

“Maybe as the season goes on, you rest Buford a little bit,” Weber said. “It keeps fresh legs, eases the stress on him.”

Sophomore center Meyers Leonard led Illinois (16-12, 5-10) with 21 points.

After losing a share of first place in the Big Ten with its loss at Michigan, Ohio State came out energized and all five starters scored in the first 61/2 minutes as it built a 28-8 lead just 9:08 into the game.

The Buckeyes led by 16 points at halftime, and Illinois was never closer in the second half.

“Coming off the loss, we wanted to come out with great intensity,” said Buford, who took only two shots in the first 13 minutes and made them both after making only 3 of 12 at Michigan.

“I didn’t dwell on it,” he said. “I came in, watched the film and tried not to make the same mistakes as I did last time.”

Buford said he was rushing his shots at Michigan and that Matta told him to “just play my game.”

“He really doesn’t say too much, just play my game and just try to take better shots,” Buford said. “I was trying to pass up good shots for great shots (last night).”

Illinois has lost nine of 10 games since upsetting OSU on Jan. 10 in Champaign, Ill., behind Brandon Paul’s 43 points. Paul scored nine points last night.

“The thing that’s so frustrating for me is our defense,” Weber said. “It carried us early and gave us a chance to win games, and now it’s not there.

“That was my complete message to the kids. There are still games to win, but unless our pride in defense changes, nothing is going to change.”

bbaptist@dispatch.com