Ohio State women’s basketball has now lost four straight games against ranked opponents.
With a pair of starters sidelined by injuries, the 13th-ranked Buckeyes were overmatched by second-ranked Indiana on Monday night at the Schottenstein Center. After suffering a 78-65 loss to the Hoosiers in Bloomington on Jan. 26, Ohio State was defeated more decisively on its home court, falling 83-59 on Monday.
Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes (33), Sara Scalia (24) and Grace Berger (16) all had huge nights for the visitors while only five total players scored for the Buckeyes, who were without both Jacy Sheldon (foot) and Rebeka Mikulasikova (ankle).
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | FINAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #13 OHIO STATE | 12 | 17 | 24 | 6 | 59 |
| #2 INDIANA | 24 | 30 | 14 | 15 | 83 |
Indiana seized control of the game quickly, scoring twice as many points as Ohio State in the first quarter. The Hoosiers made 10 of their first 15 shots while the Buckeyes started just 6-of-18. Holmes, the NCAA‘s sixth-leading scorer this season, scored eight points in the first quarter on 4-of-6 shooting to propel her team to an early 24-12 lead.
The Hoosiers’ lead ballooned to 27 points in the first four minutes of the second quarter as Indiana went on a 22-2 run between the end of the first quarter and the start of the second quarter. Holmes finished the first half with 18 points while Scalia made five first-half 3-pointers to score 17 before the break; collectively, the Hoosiers made a whopping 23 of their 31 first-half shots from the floor while the Buckeyes went just 14-of-30 overall and 1-of-7 from three before halftime.
Cotie McMahon (12), Eboni Walker (8), Taylor Mikesell (5) and Taylor Thierry (4) were the only players to score in the first half for the shorthanded Buckeyes.
The Buckeyes made a run back into the game in the third quarter, scoring 21 of the first 27 points after halftime to cut Indiana’s lead to 10. McMahon scored nine of those points and Mikesell scored eight of those points to lead the Ohio State run. A pair of threes by Scalia and Berger and a three-point play by Holmes in the final two minutes of the third quarter, however, extended the Hoosiers’ lead back to 15 going into the fourth quarter.
| OHIO STATE | STAT | INDIANA |
|---|---|---|
| 59 | POINTS | 83 |
| 26-57 (45.6%) | FGM-FGA (PCT.) | 34-57 (59.6%) |
| 3-15 (20%) | 3PM-3PA (PCT.) | 9-20 (45%) |
| 4-9 (44.4%) | FTM-FTA (PCT.) | 6-8 (75%) |
| 6 | TURNOVERS | 11 |
| 23 | TOTAL REBOUNDS | 35 |
| 5 | OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS | 7 |
| 18 | DEFENSIVE REBOUNDS | 28 |
| 0 | BENCH POINTS | 24 |
| 2 | BLOCKS | 2 |
| 6 | STEALS | 4 |
| 11 | ASSISTS | 20 |
In a game where the Buckeyes leaned almost entirely on their starting five of Walker, Thierry, McMahon, Mikesell and Rikki Harris, Ohio State ran out of steam in the fourth quarter, scoring just six points in the final 10 minutes to lose by 24.
McMahon, Mikesell and Thierry each played all of the game’s first 37 minutes and 23 seconds until finally subbing out for the first time with 2:37 left to play after Indiana took a 20-point lead. McMahon led the Buckeyes with 22 points for the game while Mikesell finished with 15 and Walker finished with 12, but Thierry (8) and Harris (2) were the only other Buckeyes to score points.
While the lack of depth was clearly a factor for the Buckeyes, Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said they couldn’t blame their poor play on that.
“Give Indiana credit, they were just better than us tonight,” McGuff said after the game. “We got certainly out of what we were trying to do, because we got a little bit riled with the start that we had.”
McGuff said Sheldon and Mikulasikova are both “day-to-day.” He said he was “cautiously optimistic” that Mikulasikova would be able to play Monday but that she was unable to play at the last minute. McGuff said Sheldon did not suffer a setback with her foot injury but that she is still working her way back to being fully ready to play after she was sidelined for more than two months.
After starting the season 19-0, Ohio State (21-5, 10-5) has now lost five of its last seven games, dropping to fifth in the Big Ten standings in the process. The Buckeyes are now 0-4 combined against Indiana, Iowa and Maryland, the top three teams in the conference table.
McGuff said the Buckeyes need to do a better job of playing together as a team in order to get over the hump against top competition.
“We better toughen up and just figure out a way to find ways to win,” McGuff said. “Right now, we're in a little bit of a, not in any selfish way in terms of like ‘Hey, I'm gonna score a bunch of points,’ but like something goes wrong, we have individuals on both ends trying to make plays rather than really stay together and within our system, and it's kind of exposing us a little bit.”
The Buckeyes, who haven’t beaten a ranked opponent since they defeated Michigan 66-57 at the Covelli Center on Dec. 31, will have two more opportunities to earn a ranked win next week when they play at Michigan next Monday night (7 p.m., FS1) and against Maryland in their Feb. 24 regular-season finale at the Schottenstein Center (6 p.m., BTN). First, they’ll travel to Penn State to play the unranked Nittany Lions on Thursday (7 p.m., BTN+).
Game Notes
- Monday night’s game was Ohio State’s “Pink Game.” The Buckeyes wore pink-trimmed gray uniforms and honored cancer survivors at halftime as part of the festivities.
- Ohio State also celebrated National Girls & Women in Sports Day and the 50th anniversary of Title IX at Monday’s game. Members of Ohio State’s other women’s sports held a pregame autograph session at the Schottenstein Center.
