Led by a career high 31-point performance by junior guard Jacy Sheldon, No. 21 Ohio State ousted Bellarmine 110-58 to remain undefeated early in the 2021-22 season.
The Buckeyes (4-0, 0-0 Big Ten) outscored the Knights (0-4, 0-0 Atlantic Sun) 70-33 in the first half, breaking the Big Ten record for both most points in the first half and any half, for that matter.
Sheldon started the game off with a personal 7-0 run and the Dublin, Ohio, native never looked back. While Sheldon was the one with the career night, she credited her team for helping her do so.
“I think them starting off in a zone really opened up shooting opportunities for us. We moved the ball really well,” Sheldon said. “We got going there in the second quarter with our press, which helped us get the lead there but we were just sharing the ball, getting the open shots and it got us the win tonight.”
Sheldon’s fellow backcourt pair sophomore guard Kateri Poole also had a season-high 12 points, just passing her previous best of 11.
Senior guard Taylor Mikesell came up just one point shy of matching her Ohio State career high as she finished with 18 points. Graduate transfer forward Tanaya Beacham also scored a season-high 12 points.
In short, Ohio State clicked offensively against Bellarmine as the Buckeyes scored 110 points, their highest offensive output since 2016. As a team, the Buckeyes shot 56.6 percent from the field and 47.6 percent from behind the arc.
However, it was a 33-0 run by the Buckeyes that started with 6:19 left in the second quarter and ended at the 7:22 mark in the third that helped Ohio State put the Knights away.
Defensively, the Buckeyes wreaked havoc with their full-court pressure. The Buckeyes forced 28 turnovers and were able to score 46 points off of them.
Causing that many turnovers every game isn’t likely for the Buckeyes, but the teams’ overall defensive effort is what head coach Kevin McGuff said he hopes to see.
“It’s a perfect world, that’s it,”McGuff said. “It is also why we didn’t press in the second half so we could work on our half-court defense a little more.”
Ohio State even held Bellarmine’s leading scorer, senior guard Presley Brown to no points after she came in averaging 11 per game. The lone bright spot for the Knights was redshirt junior guard Jaela Johnson, who finished with a team-high 24 points while shooting 6-of-12 from distance.
The Buckeyes will host Cincinnati (3-2, 0-0 American Athletic) in the Covelli Center Saturday. The game will tip at 6 p.m. and broadcast on BTN+.
