A lopsided third quarter led to the Buckeyes’ second defeat to a top-10 opponent in as many games. The sixth-ranked Indiana Hoosiers outscored Ohio State 27-6 in the third quarter to seize control of the game and defeated the second-ranked Buckeyes by a final score of 78-65.

Ohio State was unable to slow down one of the nation’s top scorers for the second game in a row. After giving up a 28-point triple-double to Iowa’s Caitlin Clark in their first loss of the week on Monday, the Buckeyes allowed Indiana forward Mackenzie Holmes to tally 26 points on Thursday. Freshman guard Yarden Garzon also came up big for the Hoosiers, scoring 20 points with four made 3-pointers.

The Buckeyes struggled from beyond the arc for the second game in a row, making only three of their 15 3-point shot attempts in Thursday’s game at Assembly Hall.

Ohio State got out to a strong start, taking an early 16-8 lead as Cotie McMahon scored six of the game’s first 24 points. The Hoosiers responded, finishing the first quarter on a 9-0 run over the final 3:57 of the quarter to pull ahead 17-16.

McMahon was the star of the second quarter, scoring 12 points in the final 10 minutes of the first half to lead the Buckeyes to a 36-32 halftime advantage. McMahon and Holmes each finished the first half with 18 points.

While Ohio State appeared to be in good shape entering the second half, it didn’t take long for Indiana to turn the game in its favor in the third quarter.

After Ohio State’s Taylor Thierry scored the first two points of the second half, Indiana went on a 17-0 run in which Garzon hit a trio of 3-pointers to open up a 49-38 lead for the home team. For the third quarter as a whole, Ohio State was outscored 27-6, putting the Buckeyes in a 17-point hole entering the fourth quarter.

The Buckeyes didn’t go down without a fight. Ohio State scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter to make it a 10-point game. But the Buckeyes weren’t able to string together enough stops to cut the Hoosiers’ fourth-quarter lead to fewer than eight points, ultimately leading to their second straight defeat by double digits.

“It was disappointing, because I thought we had played a pretty good first half to put ourselves in position right where we wanted to be,” Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff told reporters after the loss. “But give Indiana credit, they played really well during that stretch.”

McMahon led Ohio State with 21 points but was held to just three points in the second half before fouling out midway through the fourth quarter.

With Thursday’s loss, Ohio State is now 19-2 overall this season and 8-2 in Big Ten play. The Buckeyes now sit third in the conference standings behind Indiana and Iowa, who both have only one loss in Big Ten play. 

The Buckeyes will look to bounce back Sunday when they host Purdue at the Schottenstein Center. That game is set for a 1 p.m. tip-off and will be streamed on BTN+.

“We’ve faced some adversity this week, which is probably a good thing,” McGuff said. “We need to really find out who we are and get back to being who we are. We played two great teams this week, and we didn’t play well enough, and they both deserved to beat us. And so we got to take that information that we saw this week and get back to practice and make sure we can get better and be our best come March.” 

Game Notes

• Taylor Mikesell reached the 2,000-point mark for her collegiate career when she scored the first two points of Thursday night’s game.
• After opening the season with the longest unbeaten start in program history, the Buckeyes have now lost back-to-back games for the first time since they dropped their final four games of the 2020-21 season.
• Rikki Harris made her ninth straight start alongside McMahon, Mikesell, Thierry and Rebeka Mikulasikova as Jacy Sheldon remained sidelined by a foot injury.
• Indiana set a regular-season attendance record with 10,455 fans at Assembly Hall for Thursday night’s game.