The freshman center scored a career-high 21 points, teammate Othello Hunter had 14 and both provided key defensive stops down the stretch to help No. 6 Ohio State beat Indiana 74-67 on Tuesday night in the Big Ten opener for both teams.

Daequan Cook added 12 points, Ron Lewis had 10 and Mike Conley Jr. had nine points and 10 assists for the Buckeyes (12-2, 1-0), who overcame 12-of-22 3-point shooting by Indiana (9-4, 0-1) to improve to 10-0 at Value City Arena and spoil Hoosiers coach Kelvin Sampson’s first Big Ten game.

“I was a little nervous. It was a big, physical game, and Coach (Thad Matta) told us it would be really tough,” said Oden, who teamed with Conley to lead Indianapolis’ Lawrence North High School to three consecutive state championships.

The outcome wasn’t decided until the closing minutes, when Ohio State turned up the defensive intensity and turned blocked shots into baskets.

“We made key shots at the end and got some big stops on defense during that time,” Matta said. “Indiana held the ball a little bit and wanted the tempo their way, and we had to keep guys’ minds right, not getting frustrated.”

In the conference debut for Ohio State’s highly regarded recruiting class, the two tallest of the five newcomers sparked the Buckeyes down the stretch.

With the 7-foot Oden on the bench after picking up his fourth foul with 6:13 remaining, the 6-9 Hunter gave Ohio State a defensive presence in the low post by blocking two shots by D.J. White.

Hunter, a junior college transfer, followed up the first block with a dunk as the Buckeyes, without Oden on the floor, added four points to their lead to go up 67-60.

No. 3 Florida 89, Liberty 58

Gainesville, Fla. – Joakim Noah scored 15 points to lead the Gators.

Corey Brewer and Taurean Green both had 14 points for Florida (13-2), while Al Horford had 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Anthony Smith had 18 points for Liberty (6-8), which has lost 19 straight on the road and seven in a row overall after starting the season 6-1.

No. 5 Duke 73, Temple 55

Durham, N.C. – Josh McRoberts had a career-high 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds and DeMarcus Nelson scored 14 points and had a career-best 11 rebounds for the Blue Devils.

Duke (13-1) extended the nation’s longest nonconference home winning streak to 51 games. The Blue Devils won for the seventh straight time in the series with Temple (6-6) and has won nine consecutive games overall.

Temple’s Dionte Christmas came in as the Atlantic 10’s leading scorer at 20.8 points per game. He finished with 15 points on 5-for-15 shooting.

No. 18 Connecticut 69, South Florida 50

Hartford, Conn. – Jeff Adrien and Jerome Dyson both scored 16 points and the Huskies bounced back from their first loss of the season.

UConn (12-1, 1-1 Big East), which lost at West Virginia on Saturday, led by 14 points at halftime and scored the first 11 points of the second half.

Melvin Buckley had 17 points for South Florida (9-6, 0-1).