Senior guard Taylor Mikesell (24) shoots over Maryland sophomore guard Shyanne Sellers (0) during the Ohio State-Maryland game Friday at the Schottenstein Center. Ohio State lost 76-74. Credit: Caleb Blake | For The Lantern
Senior guard Taylor Mikesell’s final play as a Buckeye in the regular season came down to the waning seconds of the fourth quarter in Friday’s game against her former team No. 7 Maryland.
After a putback layup from freshman forward Cotie McMahon with less than a second remaining, the Buckeye faithful waited nervously at the Schottenstein Center as the referees reviewed the play after the final buzzer.
Their call — shot no good.
McMahon’s hands were still on the ball as the buzzer sounded, as the No. 16 Buckeyes dropped their final regular season game 76-74 against Maryland after going scoreless in the remaining 2:38 minutes of the ballgame.
For the Terrapins, it’s their first season sweep of the Buckeyes since 2018-19. They also played spoiler to former Terrapin Mikesell’s senior night.
But Mikesell, who spent two seasons at Maryland from 2018-20 and another at Oregon from 2020-21, hopes that Buckeye Nation remembers her not only as a basketball player or her 3-point shooting arsenal, but as a person who fought through adversity.
“I would like Buckeye Nation to remember me as somebody that left everything they had,” Mikesell said. “Came in here and worked as hard as I could and hopefully left an impact on the younger generation.”
Mikesell was one of four Buckeyes to score in double figures. She scored 18 points on 4-of-9 shooting from behind the arc as she played a team-high 40 minutes. McMahon scored a team-high 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field.
Maryland senior guard Abby Meyers led with a game-high 24 points with nearly half coming in the fourth quarter. The Terrapins’ leading scorer this season senior guard Diamond Miller and senior guard Lavender Briggs went for 16 points apiece.
The fourth quarter was filled with excitement as the Buckeyes led 63-58 after trailing for just over 20 minutes in the first three frames. But Maryland scored five consecutive points, one coming after a turnover from senior forward Eboni Walker which led head coach Kevin McGuff to call a timeout one minute into the quarter.
“We just need to get a little bit better. We had a couple of miscommunications, a couple of transition defense errors that we didn’t get,” McGuff said.
From that point on a back-and-forth battle ensued as both teams traded buckets down the stretch. Briggs hit a 3-point shot with 5:43 left as the Terrapins gained their first lead of the fourth quarter.
Missed free throws would cost Ohio State as it shot 8-of-20 from the free throw line and came up empty-handed in the last 2:38.
But still, Ohio State had a chance to capitalize after Meyers missed her second free throw with 11 seconds to go, and the crowd cheered in delight as they urged the Buckeyes to make just one more play.
Redshirt junior guard Rikki Harris had a chance to tie the game at the free throw line with 10 seconds remaining, but missed both.
Sophomore guard Taylor Thierry missed a jumper with 1 second left on the clock, and McMahon’s putback attempt was too late.
McGuff said that the team has been efficient in its free throw percentage this season and believes this game was an anomaly compared to how the Buckeyes usually perform.
“Like I told them, sometimes the ball doesn’t go in the basket, but you can always control your effort,” McGuff said. “Your intensity, your competitive spirit, we did that. We just need to make one or two more plays, and give them credit. They did. We didn’t.”
The Buckeyes had plenty of opportunities to take the lead down the stretch, but their inability to score points may have been the deciding factor.
On the other hand, the Terrapins showed their ability to make just one more play and hold up well on the defensive end.
Mikesell said having this late-game situation in a match of this magnitude is important because it helps them prepare for teams moving forward as Ohio State enters the postseason in a few weeks.
“Anytime you can get experience like that, I mean, it’s good to have,” Mikesell said. “Obviously want to be on the other side of that, but you know, we’ll learn from it. We’ll be better next time.”
For the Buckeyes, next time will be in Minneapolis as they prepare for the Big Ten Tournament. They have a double bye and will be the No. 4 seed, beginning play Friday.
McGuff said Friday’s loss gives the Buckeyes more motivation down the stretch in comparison to their earlier matchup against the Terrapins this season, in which they suffered their largest loss of the season — a 36-point defeat Feb. 5 at College Park, Maryland.
“In the last two weeks, 10 days, we’ve played much better and been kind of where we need to be,” McGuff said. “Now we can get a little bit of rest and just kind of sharpen up some things before we head to Minneapolis.”
