Ohio State women’s basketball head coach Kevin McGuff answers questions at media day Oct. 10. Credit: Colin Hass-Hill | Former Sports Editor
The Ohio State women’s basketball team notched its first win of the season Friday night against Detroit Mercy, defeating the Titans 55-41.
History came early for the Buckeyes as redshirt senior guard Carmen Grande recorded her 700th career assist within the first minute of the game, furthering her active lead in the NCAA in assists. She would finish the game with seven assists.
The action was back and forth for much of the first and second quarter until the Buckeyes were able to pull away during the second quarter after Detroit Mercy had a scoring drought lasting over five minutes.
Freshman forward Aaliyah Patty was the highlight player for Ohio State off the bench, leading the team with 16 points, connecting on eight of 11 shots from the field, with four rebounds.
Even though Patty was the leading scorer for the Buckeyes, her primary focus, after the game, was on the defense Ohio State played, limiting the Titans to 33 percent shooting from the field.
“Defense is something we have been focusing on since we started,” Patty said. “I think from the last game, it’s something that we realized this is something we have to really, really focus on if we want to be great.”
Junior guard Jensen Caretti’s three-point shot with six seconds left in the first half exhilarated the crowd and signaled the last shot of the first half giving Ohio State a 28-21 lead at halftime.
The Buckeyes’ second half started on a 6-0 run, extending Ohio State’s lead to 14. Freshman forward Dorka Juhasz scored back-to-back baskets to start the third quarter, ending the game with 14 points, making seven of 17 shot attempts, and 10 rebounds, her second double-double in two career collegiate games.
Ohio State spread the ball around, notching 20 total assists while shooting 44.1 percent from the field.
The implementation of the game plan and staying within themselves was something that lead the Buckeyes to easier shots in in their first win of the season, according to head coach Kevin McGuff.
“Controlling what we can control,” McGuff said. “When we’re in the right spot defensively and we execute on that end of the floor we’re pretty good. Then on offensive when we ran the correct play and everybody was in the right spot and did the right thing it usually lead to a good shot. When we got out of that it was a bad shot or a turnover. So just our overall execution.”
Ohio State will try and continue its execution on Sunday against the No. 2 UConn Huskies.
