The Ohio State women’s basketball team huddles up before facing No. 15-seed Maine in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The No. 2-seeded Buckeyes routed the Black Bears 80-57 at the Schottenstein Center. Credit: Caleb Blake | Photo Editor
The Buckeyes turned up their full-court press all game versus the 15-seed Maine Black Bears, which proved to be too much to overcome.
The No. 2 seed Ohio State women’s basketball team (26-5, 16-2 Big Ten) defeated No. 15 seed Maine (24-10, 14-2 America East) 80-57 in the Round of 64 Friday at Value City Arena at the Schottenstein Center thanks to its defense forcing 22 turnovers, leading to 24 points on the offensive end.
The win snaps the Buckeyes’ two-game losing streak, while the loss for the Black Bears snaps their six-game winning streak.
Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff said he was pleased with the response Ohio State had coming out of the game.
“I think overall we had some really good moments,” McGuff said. “We looked more like ourselves in terms of our intensity, focus and just how hard we were playing. So I thought we had some great moments today.”
The first quarter saw both teams trading baskets, with the Buckeyes picking apart Maine’s 2-3 zone defense to get good looks inside the paint.
Meanwhile, the Black Bears had the hot hand from distance early, with senior guard Olivia Rockwood hitting three triples and junior forward Adrianna Smith knocking down one of her own, which put Maine ahead 14-13 at the 3:20 mark of the first.
Rockwood finished with 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting from distance, while Smith had 11 points and a team-high six rebounds. The Black Bears made their first five field goals, with four of them coming from beyond the arc.
Ohio State found its groove during the final leg of the first, with graduate guard Celeste Taylor nailing a corner three and graduate guard Jacy Sheldon making a floater at the buzzer, putting the Buckeyes up 22-16 after one.
Taylor finished with 12 points and had a team-high six rebounds, five assists and six steals, while Sheldon led Ohio State in scoring with 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting.
McGuff said having Taylor in this season’s tournament run is going to be a huge difference-maker for the Buckeyes.
“Celeste is a great player; you see the energy and passion she plays with on the defensive end,” McGuff said. “Getting her hand on the basketball and tipping and just disrupting the other team’s flow and their offense is just really impactful for us.”
Redshirt-senior guard Rikki Harris got Ohio State going early in the second with a fast-break triple, extending its lead to 10 with 8:14 left in the first half.
Maine graduate guard Anne Simon made a layup to cut its deficit to eight but Sheldon responded on the next possession, drilling a three as the Buckeyes’ lead extended to 29-18 with 6:24 remaining in the second. Simon scored a team-high 25 points on 11-of-21 shooting.
Ohio State’s full-court press started to amp up in the second, forcing several Black Bear turnovers, which led to opportunities at the foul line, allowing the Buckeyes to extend their lead to 17 at the 4:33 mark in the second quarter.
Sheldon continued to shine offensively, scoring an and-1 layup off the fast break, which put Ohio State up 20 with 2:53 left in the first half.
The Buckeyes ended the second quarter the same way they ended the first, as redshirt-senior Madison Greene buried a three at the buzzer, putting Ohio State on top by a comfortable margin of 43-24 at the half.
The Buckeyes started the third quarter fast, as Taylor converted a layup off another Maine turnover 14 seconds into the quarter. Sheldon then made her second triple of the game, extending Ohio State’s lead to 24, 48-24.
Sheldon said the defense is going to be a huge factor in the Buckeyes’ NCAA Tournament run moving forward.
“That’s what gets our offense going,” Sheldon said. “Staying disciplined and staying to what we do every game; half-court and our press is going to be really important for us.”
Maine responded as Rockwood made her fourth three-pointer of the game and the Buckeyes’ lead was suddenly down to 17.
However, sophomore forward Cotie McMahon responded with an and-1 to slow the momentum down for the Black Bears, as Ohio State went ahead 53-33 with 4:56 left in the third. McMahon finished with 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting.
Maine continued to chip away, as Simon scored 10 points in the third including several drives to the basket to keep its deficit under 20 points, but the Buckeyes’ talent was too much to handle.
Sheldon knocked down back-to-back baskets in the final minute of the third as their lead extended to 21 at the end of the third.
After Rockwood made her fifth triple of the game, the Buckeyes answered with a three from graduate forward Rebeka Miklulasikova and another three from redshirt-sophomore guard Emma Shumate to extend their lead back to 24 with just over six minutes remaining.
The next few minutes saw Ohio State knock down a couple more baskets, which was all it needed to put away the Black Bears for good and advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Sheldon said the Buckeyes’ key to moving forward in the postseason is to not look too far ahead.
“I think it’s easy in this tournament to look ahead and that’s something we don’t do,” Sheldon said. “Just looking at the next game and that’s it and that’s what the focus is.”
Ohio State faces the winner of the matchup between No. 10 seed Richmond and No. 7 seed Duke Sunday in the Round of 32 at home.
