Women's Basketball
Buckeyes Advance with Win over Sacred Heart
By John PorentasThe last two seasons the Buckeyes have exited the NCAA tournament in the first round, raising questions about their ability to compete at the national level. A 77-63 win over Sacred Heart in the opening round this year went a ways toward erasing doubts about the Buckeyes. It also showed they can win a game more ways than just one.
The Buckeyes (28-5) have been depended on two-time Big Ten player of the year Jantel Lavender for offense the entire season, and while Lavender's offense wasn't terrible against Sacred Heart (28-5), it wasn't up to her standards. Instead of panicking, the Buckeyes just found other ways to win.
Freshman point guard Samantha Prahalis scored a team-high 23 points, many of them coming on slashing drives for layups, to pick up the little bit of slack that Lavender left in the OSU offense. Lavender chipped in 19 points and 10 rebounds on her "off day", but a couple of other Buckeyes also stepped up to help out.
"Personally I think my offense wasn't going for me today. My teammates stepped up today." said Lavender.
Senior guard Ashlee Trebilcock game off the bench to add 13 points and junior guard Maria Moeller added 12 more by canning four of seven three point attempts. Lavender's presence down low and the outside game with Moeller and Trebilcock were tough to beat, but with Prahalis pushing the ball up the court and getting to the rim to score, the Buckeyes were tough to beat.
"From a post player's perspective being able to kick the ball out to the wings or kick the ball out to the perimeter and have guards who can score makes me extremely confident and happy to have that inside/outside game. Maria has been working on her shot and it's starting to fall," said Lavender.
The Buckeyes appeared to have some opening game jitters that allowed Sacred Heart to hold a slim lead over the first five minutes of play, but OSU settled down to tie the game at nine at 14:14, then stayed in control almost the rest of the game.
OSU led by 12 at the half at 42-30 but the Pioneers made a run to open the second half and cut OSU's lead to just two at 46-44. It would be as close as they would get however Trebilcock hit a three to put OSU back up five and after an OSU stop Moeller hit another three from the corner to put the Buckeyes up eight.
"They're a good team and they're not a going to go away, so we had to grind it out, but I was never really worried," said Prahalis of the Sacred Heart run.
The Pioneers would get no closer than five the rest of the way and the Buckeyes extended their second half lead to as many as 16 on the way to cruising to the win. Prahalis not only took OSU's scoring honors but also drew praise from OSU Head Coach Jim Foster for her overall game as well.
"The numbers that I like are seven assists and one turnover," said Foster.
"I like the fact that she got to the foul line as often as she did because she was so aggressive taking it to the basket."
Prahalis brought a smile to Foster's face after the game, but a look of concern also crossed his face in the second half when Prahalis went down in obvious pain after driving to the basket. The crowd of 5,249 was totally silent as Prahalis laid on the floor with what appeared at first to be a knee injury. It turned out to be false alarm.
"My calves started cramping up," said Prahalis in describing her problem.
Sacred Heart got an outstanding game from forward Callan Taylor who scored a game-high 24 points and also grabbed seven rebounds. Taylor however did not have the balance round her that the Buckeyes had on the floor. Sacred Heart's only other double digit scorer was guard Alisa Apo with 14.
"My team competed today and that's all I ask of them," said Sacred Heart Head Coach Ed Swanson whose team saw a 21-game winning streak come to an end with the loss.
"They tried, they executed the game plan, they played free, had fun, played with passion, played with purpose."
"I really think we went out there as an underdog and gave it everything we had," said senior center Kaitlin Sowinski. "Unfortunately it didn't work out in our favor."
The Buckeyes made two less field goals that the Pioneers but went to the free throw line 29 times making 21 of them. Sacred Heart got just six attempts and made three.
"When a team is as post oriented as we are and puts the ball on the floor as much as we do your ability to get to the foul line increases," said Foster.
"At times during the season we were making more foul shots than our opponents attempted. That's just the way we play."
Ohio State will meet Mississippi State in the second round of the tournament on Monday. The Bulldogs eliminated Texas in their first round matchup.
"They're long, athletic, quick, and very good defensively." said Foster.
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