The Buckeyes play their last regular season game of the year today, taking on the Michigan State Spartans in Columbus. This is the second meeting between the two teams, the first having ended in a Spartan victory in overtime in East Lansing.
The game is scheduled for 4:30 PM Eastern Time on CBS. Don’t forget spring forward was last night, so change your clocks accordingly. We look forward to chatting with you through the game! Go Bucks!
After rolling #1 seed Penn State 99-82 on Friday afternoon, the Buckeyes advanced to the B1G semifinal game against Iowa, an 87-80 winner over Purdue in the second afternoon game. This game tips off at 3:30 PM EST on Saturday.
Ohio State dropped it’s regular season games against Iowa, 81-74 in Columbus and 65-61 in Iowa City. However, as we saw earlier on Friday, Penn State rolled Ohio State twice during the regular season, but come “tournament time”, it didn’t mean anything at all.
In their win over Penn State, OSU placed 5 players in double figures with some blistering hot field goal shooting. This could be an interesting game for Ohio State, as Coach McGuff has changed his Center rotation with Lisa Blair supplanting Ashley Adams as the #2 center this week. However, is Ashley’s 8 minutes of play against PSU, she filled up the stat sheet with a very productive and determined performance. Cait Craft’s scoring outburst will certainly provide another player for an opponent to guard; Alston, Ferguson and Ellerbe are already a handful. The reemergence of Adams and Craft may lead to some interesting results this weekend.
The Iowa game will be another fast paced affair, as Iowa put up 70 FG attempts. By comparison, in their win over PSU, Ohio State had 58 FG attempts. Iowa also had 14 offensive rebounds, so the Buckeyes will need all three of their centers to be productive against the Hawkeyes.
Tip-off is scheduled for 3:30 PM EST, with television coverage provided by BTN.
Based on a strong 2nd half performance yesterday against Northwestern, Ohio State’s Friday opponent was #1 seed Penn State. The Nittany Lions had no trouble with the ‘bye’ to move into the 2nd round.
That “thud” you heard was Penn State’s Big Ten Tournament coming to a convincing end as Ohio State avenged two regular season losses by upsetting the Lions 99-82. The Buckeyes built upon yesterday’s 2nd half 51 point blitz of Northwestern with a season high half score of 58 points half against the Nittany Lions to have a 58-34 lead at the half.
Ohio State ended the game shooting 62% from the field (36-58) and a blistering 55% from the perimeter (10-18) and 71% (15-21) from the foul line. They grabbed 37 rebounds, 8 offensive. But then, if you’r shooting over 62%, you wouldn’t have too many opportunities. Penn State shot 37% (26-71) from the field, 20% (3-15) from the perimeter and 77% (27-35) from the foul line.
Ohio State was led by five players in double figures: Ameryst Alston (31 pts, 9 ast), Cait Craft (24 pts, 6 ast), Raven Ferguson (15 pts, 7 reb), Darryce Moore (11 pts, 6 reb) and Ashley Adams (11 pts, 5 reb). I want to pay special mention to Ashley Adams. Due to foul trouble by Darryce Moore, Ashley was rotated in at Center for the last eight minutes of the game. In those eight minutes, Ashley had 11 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks and an assist. This was coming up big in a big game for Ashley. Well done.
Penn State was led by Ariel Edwards (29 pts, 10 rebs), Maggie Lucas (21 pts, 6 rebs) and Dara Taylor (14 pts, 5 rebs, 8 ast).
This is it, Sunday is the regular season finale for Ohio State (22-8, 9-8) and #22 Michigan State (22-7, 11-5). Prior to their first game (preview) on January 7th, Ohio State (15-0, 2-0) was ranked #3 and Michigan State (13-1, 2-0) was ranked #5. After trailing at the half, the Buckeyes mounted a comeback to tie the game in regulation, but lost in overtime, 72-68. Please note in the Preview, my Guest Commentator exactly nailed the margin. Since that game, the Buckeyes have gone 7-7 and are now “others receiving votes” while the Spartans have gone 8-6 and are ranked #22. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Right now, the teams are playing for Big Ten Tournament seeding. Ohio State will finish at #5 or #6 depending on results of this game, plus the Saturday Iowa-Illinois game. Michigan State, currently sitting in 2nd place, will keep an eye on Sunday’s Wisconsin-Nebraska game. The regular season championship is wrapped up, but for the Spartans, seeds #2-#4 are still in play.
The #8 seed Ohio State Buckeyes beat Northwestern 86-77; next up is #1 seed Penn State. Oh boy. The Buckeyes and the Nittany Lions met twice in the regular season, with PSU winning this game, then that game. Neither game was particularly close as Ohio State had trouble containing Maggie Lucas (41 points) and Ariel Edwards (21 points, 16 rebs) in their encounters.
The downside with Ohio State at this point is that being a bit short-handed, back-to-back games can be grueling, especially if the second “back” is against the conference’s #1 seed. Having said that, perhaps the Buckeyes can ride the out-standing performances of Ameryst Alston, Martina Ellerbe and Darryce Moore to an emotional and energetic performance tomorrow.
Not much to preview here, the team have played twice with Penn State coming out with convincing wins both times. However, if Ohio State can build on their 2nd half performance against Northwestern (51 points), an upset could be in the making. Sometimes “third time’s a charm”, so although the Nittany Lions (22-6, 11-3 ) would appear to be heavy favorites over the Buckeyes (16-17, 6-11), lightning can strike and upsets do happen.
The OSU-PSU game tips off at 12:00 PM EST with television coverage via BTN.
Go Bucks!
Ohio State and Northwestern opened up the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament this afternoon. The Buckeyes finally prevailed in a tough contest, pulling away in the last two minutes for the final margin, 86-77. Before I get into the particulars, I want to congratulate both teams on a hard fought contest. The 2nd half, especially, was an exciting contest, which really went down to the final few minutes.. Although OSU trailed by 4 at the half (39-35), a 51 point second half blitz proved to be too much for the Wildcats.
Ohio State was led by Ameryst Alston’s 30 points (20 in the 2nd half), and double ‘double-doubles’ by Darryce Moore (19 points, 10 rebounds) and Martina Ellerbe (16 points, 13 rebounds). Truly outstanding performances. Ohio State shot 41% from the field, grabbed 45 rebounds and only turned the ball over 8 times.
Northwestern was led by Maggie Lyon’s 23 points, Lauren Douglas’ 15 points, Karly Roser’s 11 points and Nia Coffey’s 17 points and 11 rebounds. Northwestern shot 40% from the field, had 41 rebounds and turned the ball over 10 times.
With the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament getting underway today at Conseco Fieldhouse, I mean Banker’s Life Fieldhouse or whatever it is called now, in Indianapolis, some of us here at tBBC sat down to make our predictions for what will happen in the tournament. Ohio State enters the tournament as the 8th seed with a 15-17 record and will need to make it to the championship game in order to qualify for the WNIT, need to finish the season with a .500 record or better; of course if they win the tournament they will be headed to the big dance. The road for the team will be difficult but anything is possible come tournament time. Check out our predictions below for what will happen in each of the tournament’s 11 games.
Ohio State. A very winnable game for both teams, but i think OSU pulls together to get this win. The Buckeyes may not play 40 minutes of good basketball, but 30 minutes should be enough.
We wrap up the Buckeyes regular season with a get together to discuss our feelings about multiple topics. We’re pleased to have Marty Bannister from The Fan in Columbus and the voice of the Buckeyes join us and give his thoughts on the regular season. We also have women’s basketball season ticket holder and superfan Jeff Howell joining us with his insight to our Q&A. I have included links in the participant’s names for their twitters, please follow if you aren’t already! Let’s get started.
Seems like yesterday that this photo was taken, hard to believe Coaches first season is almost in the books
Marty - Two things pop to mind right away, the signing of the highly rated freshman recruiting class, led Cincinnati Princeton’s Kelsey Mitchell and Kettering Fairmont’s Makayla Waterman, and then that same week, opening with a win at then 12th ranked, and now 7th ranked, West Virginia. That win came without Raven Ferguson, suspended for the first 3 games, and the Buckeyes played the final 1:20 with only 5 eligible players. That same Mountaineer team won at Baylor this past weekend,snapping the defending champs 35 game home court win streak.
Jeff - To me the highlight of McGuff’s first season was the ability of he and his staff to “coach up” this team. There have obviously been more talented Lady Buckeye teams in the past, but in my 12 years as a season ticket holder I have never seen a Lady Buckeye team with more heart and effort than this year’s team. Let’s face it – other than Ameryst Alston, this team was largely made up of role players, who provided a specific area of expertise: a rebounder – Moore/Adams, a defensive stopper – Craft, an energy person – Scullion, a person who can take someone off the dribble – Raven, a person who can hit an open shot – Ellerbe. None of these had the all around, everything game of Alston. McGuff and his staff were able to get the most out of nothing from this group and for the most part were competitive in every single game. His whole approach to practices, warm-ups prior to the game start, his engaging energy on the bench, etc. were refreshing and will bode well going forward.
Ken - The season opening win against West Virginia. In their first game, they visited a very good team and won an away game. Good times were ahead for us.
Mali - We beat Michigan at Michigan. That’s never ever a bad thing.
Charles - This is a tossup between the season opening win on the road against a good West Virginia team, always good to get a win in your first game as head coach, and the upset of 17th ranked Purdue in the first Big Ten game. Beating a ranked conference foe is a big deal and was made better because it was against Purdue who I possibly hate more than Michigan in women’s basketball.
WVaBuckeye - I have two that are ties from my perspective. First, was the way this team came out and performed to his expectations and that definitely became the catalyst for players who just weren’t going to handle the improvement. I think that’s a positive thing. Second, is the tireless work in which he and staff put in with regards to the class that’s coming in and the two stars transferring. The season and recruiting is a testament to him because he did a lot with very little so to speak.
