Ohio State’s women’s basketball team fell to 12-12 overall and 5-9 in the Big Ten following a pair of defeats over the weekend. Both games were on the road and closely contested. OSU lost to Iowa on Thursday, 68-60, and at Illinois on Sunday, 70-61. “I think we competed very, very well,” said coach Beth Burns. “We had back-to-back games where our front line was very successful. Unfortunately, we could not get our shots to fall. We struggled from the perimeter and struggled defending the perimeter in both games.”

Leading the front line charge at Iowa was freshman center LaToya Turner. Turner scored 15 points and added eight rebounds to pace OSU. Sophomore guard Lauren Shenk tallied 14 points, including a 3 of 4 three-point shooting performance.

Iowa (9-15, 6-8) used a 12-2 run to open the first 5:54 of the second half of the game to help their cause. OSU valiantly closed the gap with 3:23 remaining to bring the game to knot the game at 55-55, but OSU fell short of a victory when Iowa’s junior guard Cara Consuegra finished off the Buckeyes with six of her 19 points coming in the final minutes.

Along with Consuegra, sophomore guard Lindsey Meder added 23 points from the perimeter to lead the Hawkeyes.

In Sunday’s defeat at Illinois, more outstanding guard play did the Buckeyes in as sophomore guard Allison Curtin scored 21 points and collected seven rebounds to lead the Illini (19-9, 9-5).

Two other guards, senior Kylie Martin and freshman Shavonna Hunter, scored 16 and 14 points, respectively.

Turner again led the Buckeyes, this time with her third double-double of the season. She scored 15 points and collected 11 rebounds while fellow freshman Courtney Coleman added 12 points and two rebounds.

Illinois held OSU scoreless for a 3:44 stretch mid-way through the second half and scored 10 points as they never looked back. They used tough perimeter defense to key their surge and did not allow OSU the opportunity to come back.

“We played well,” Burns said, “But we just did not defend them well. We have to move on and beat Indiana.”

OSU will look to break its two-game losing streak when they travel to Indiana on Thursday.