Ohio State graduate forward Tanaya Beacham (35) takes her free throw shot during the Ohio State-Duquesne game on Nov. 29. Ohio State won 82-47. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
After finally playing in its first game and obtaining its first win, the Ohio State women’s basketball team is looking to keep the momentum rolling.
No. 19 Ohio State (1-0) earned an 82-47 season-opening win over Duquesne and moved up a spot in the AP poll heading into the second week of the season. Sophomore guard Jacy Sheldon said that the Buckeyes will be prepared for the early season challenge against Kent State (0-0), who is looking to start the season with a bang.
“We’re gonna go back, we’re gonna watch film, critique ourselves, everybody. So we’ll definitely learn a lot from that,” Sheldon said Sunday. “We’re also gonna watch film on Kent to get prepared for them. We’re gonna go back, watch it and learn a lot from that. So, we’ll get ourselves prepared.”
The Golden Flashes come off a season in which they went 19-11 en route to the Mid-American Conference East division regular season title. Their postseason quest for a conference title was thrown off track after their semifinal game against Eastern Michigan was canceled in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the offseason, Kent State lost its leading scorer and junior guard Asiah Dingle — who provided the Golden Flashes with 13.3 points per game — as she transferred to Stony Brook.
Despite losing out on Dingle’s production, the Golden Flashes still return sophomore forward Nila Blackford — who leads all returning players with 12.4 points per game in 2019-20. Blackford was also Kent State’s leading rebounder last season, collecting eight boards per game.
In the backcourt, the Golden Flashes bring back sophomore guard Katie Schumate who served as Kent State’s marksman from deep with a team-high 37 percent from 3-point range. Schumate added 12.3 points per game last season.
As Kent State returns a fair amount of its production from a year ago, Ohio State has retained the services of its starting five from the 2019-20 campaign.
In its season opener, Sheldon led the way for the Buckeyes with 20 points while last year’s leading scorer and junior forward Dorka Juhasz struggled from the field.
Despite shooting just 31 percent from the field, Juhasz finished the game with her 23rd career double-double — scoring 10 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff pointed to the impact Juhasz makes outside of scoring.
“She’s still very valuable because she rebounded the ball well. I thought she did very good defensively,” McGuff said. “She’s a really important part of what we do.”
Juhasz should be primed for another big outing on the boards, as Kent State is ranked 10th in the MAC in rebounding margin.
In the 2019-20 campaign, the Buckeyes shot an average of 23 threes per game. However, against Duquesne, Ohio State shot just 14 3-pointers.
McGuff said the team is more focused in generating their offense in other areas, but the three will remain a valuable part of the Buckeye offense going forward.
“Last year we did become, at times, too reliant on the 3-point shot,” McGuff said. “I think that’s gonna be a big part of who we are, but we also gotta be able to get the ball inside as well.”
With that newfound attention to inside scoring, Ohio State controlled the paint in the season opener, outclassing the Dukes 54-22 inside.
The Buckeyes also looked to push the pace against the Dukes as they dominated the transition game 30-5. Sheldon said the transition game was a key factor in the Buckeyes’ season-opening win.
“We did a great job in transition, all of us did. Passing it around and finding the open man, which started with our rebounds,” Sheldon said. “Offensively we played really well together.”
With the first game out of the way and Kent State heading to Columbus, Sheldon said that the team is looking ahead to the rest of the season.
“There was a lot of excitement. It’s been a while since we’ve all had to go against anyone other than each other,” Sheldon said. “We were anxious but we’re very happy to get that under our belt and we’re excited for the rest of the season.”
The Buckeyes and Golden Flashes square off at noon Wednesday at the Covelli Center.
