Ohio State fourth-year guard Taylor Miksell (24) huddles the Buckeyes up during No. 3 Ohio State’s (17-0) 87-81 win over Illinois (14-3) in Columbus on Sunday. Credit: Zachary Rilley | Photo Editor
The No. 3 Ohio State women’s basketball team looks to extend its program-best 17-0 start Saturday afternoon as it takes on Nebraska at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
The Buckeyes, led by head coach Kevin McGuff, come off their largest second-half comeback in program history, winning by a final score of 87-81, after being down 17 points to Illinois Sunday midway through the third quarter.
“Our leadership is really good, and our effort seems to be good at the right time,” McGuff said. “We have a belief that with our style of play that we can come back even if we are down.”
Despite the absence of senior guard Jacy Sheldon, the Buckeyes second leading scorer, other players have stepped up. Impacting the game on both ends of the court is redshirt junior guard Rikki Harris. The Indianapolis native’s versatile style of play has allowed her to play multiple positions throughout the season, which manyyoung players dislike, McGuff said.
“The thing about Rikki is that she’s a really bright kid, high basketball IQ. We’ve technically played her at four positions this year,” McGuff said. “She knows exactly where she’s supposed to be and can help people get in the spots they’re supposed to be in. So, she does a really good job keeping us organized.”
Harris, along with several other players this year, attended The Eugene D. Smith Leadership Institute, an organization for Ohio State student-athletes that supplies leadership, character and career training to prepare them for life after graduation, Harris said. She believes it helped tremendously in comparison to previous years, where players didn’t feel comfortable going to teammates who they considered to be leaders of the team, she said.
Senior guard Taylor Mikesell and Sheldon join Harris as a few of the leaders of the team, she said.
“Playing with Rikki is amazing. She’s an amazing defensive player and is always making the right decisions,” senior forward Rebeka Mikulasikova said. “She passes me the ball all the time, and she’s just a very smart player. I think she’s very intelligent with the way she plays.”
The Buckeyes hope this leadership can push them past Nebraska, which is 2-4 against ranked opponents this season,
The Huskers, led by head coach Amy Williams, enter the game with an 11-6 record. They come off a 31-point win against Penn State Wednesday, snapping a three-game losing streak which included an overtime loss against No. 6 Indiana.
Wednesday’s game also marked a career milestone for Williams, as she brought in her 300th career win in 16 seasons of college coaching.
Setting the tone for Nebraska is junior guard Jaz Shelley. The Moe, Australia, native is averaging 14.0 points per game while shooting over 41 percent from the field. Shelley also leads her team in assists, dishing out 6.6 a game.
The Huskers also received contributions from sophomore forward-center Alexis Markowski. The 6-foot-3 sophomore nearly averages a double-double with 12.2 points and 9.4 rebounds per game, along with 19 blocks, a team high this season.
“They’ve played incredibly well at times. They’re coming off a really good win where they really played well in all phases of the game,” McGuff said. “They scored the ball efficiently, shot the ball really well and also made it tough on Penn State to score.”
The Buckeyes look to even the score, as Nebraska holds the 4-3 edge when the teams play at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Ohio State’s last win at Lincoln was an 80-74 overtime decision Feb. 2, 2020.
Harris said the team will begin to watch film of Nebraska over the next couple of days.
“They’re a good team, and it’s hard to beat any Big Ten team anywhere,” Harris said.” But playing at Nebraska is one of the hardest places to play, so we’ll have to come prepared, ready and give it our all because it’s going to be hard to beat them at home.”
The Buckeyes are unranked nationally in scoring defense, in large part due to the absence of two of their key defensive players, Sheldon and redshirt junior guard Madison Greene. Both players are currently top three on the team in steals despite Greene missing five games after a season-ending knee injury, and Sheldon missing action since Nov. 20.
“We’ve lost some players, and we have some players coming back, so I would say they bring a good defensive intensity to the game,” Harris said. “Having them back on the court will definitely pop out our defensive rating. But overall, I feel like as long as we can stop teams when we need to stop them and continue to play together, we’ll be fine.”
