Ohio State to host women’s basketball tournament games in 2013
OSU has been selected as one of sixteen schools to host first- and second-round games in the 2013 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship, the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee announced in a press release Monday. The games, which will be played at St. John Arena, will mark the third time in five years that OSU will host first- and second-round games.
It will also be the third time in eight years OSU will host tournament games at St. John Arena.
The Buckeyes hosted first- and second-round games in 2009 at Nationwide Arena in downtown Columbus and in 2011 at St. John Arena, where they also hosted in 2004.
The NCAA said in the press release the chosen schools, which include Duke, LSU, Connecticut and Stanford, were a good geographic representation of women’s basketball.
“As a committee we are excited that in 2013 our championship will be hosten by institutions from nine different conferences …,” said Greg Christopher, chair of the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee and director of athletics at Bowling Green State University. “Having this geographic blend of sites is important to the committee as we continue to grow the game of women’s basketball.”
Iowa is the only other Big Ten school chosen to host first- and second-round games, in Iowa City, Iowa, according to the press release.
Games will take place either Saturday, March 23 and Monday, March 25 or Sunday, March 24 and Tuesday, March 26. The dates will be determined in June 2012, the press release states.
OSU had not released a statement as of Monday evening.
Men’s hockey: Max McCormick named CCHA Rookie of the Week
Max McCormick, freshman forward for the No. 17-ranked OSU men’s hockey team, was named CCHA Gongshow Rookie of the Week, the CCHA announced Monday. It was the second league award for McCormick and the fourth rookie of the week award for OSU men’s ice hockey this season.
The award came on the heels of McCormick’s three points in the Buckeyes’ series against Western Michigan this weekend. The De Pere, Wis., native scored a third-period goal Friday to tie the game, 2-2, in the Buckeyes’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Broncos. McCormick opened scoring Saturday with a first-period power-play goal and later tallied an assist on freshman forward Ryan Dzingel’s power-play goal en route to the Buckeyes’ 4-3 victory, their first of 2012.
A draft pick of the Ottawa Senators, McCormick has a point on 11 of OSU’s last 16 goals. He is on a five-game scoring streak, has posted totals of 6-4-10 in the stretch and has multiple points in all but one game. McCormick ranks fourth among CCHA rookies in scoring and ranks second among conference freshmen, with 20 points in league play.
McCormick was last named CCHA Gongshow Rookie of the Week on Oct. 17.
The Buckeyes next face No. 19 Miami (Ohio) in a home-and-home series Feb. 24-25. The teams will drop the puck at 6:05 p.m. Feb. 24 in Oxford, Ohio, before returning to Columbus for the second game at 7:05 p.m. at Schottenstein Center.
