The Ohio State women’s basketball team kicks off its season at 7 p.m. tomorrow when the Buckeyes travel to Pittsburgh to do battle with Duquesne University.
Last time out, the Buckeyes claimed victory against the BEAC-Siemens of Budapest, Hungary. OSU scored 85 to the Siemens’ 53 points in front of 2,151 fans during the team’s first exhibition game.
Senior center LaToya Turner returns this year after a medical redshirt last season. She led the Buckeyes with 27 points and pulled down 12 rebounds during play against the Siemens.
“Everybody’s starting to come together and play together as a team,” Turner said. “We’ve got our team goals and individual goals. We just have to go out there, play smart and play together.”
Another player coming off injury and back in the mix is sophomore guard Caity Matter, who netted 23 points. Senior forward Courtney Coleman, a second team All-Big Ten pick, added 14 points in the game.
“There’s a new found enthusiasm on the team this year,” Matter said. “The team confidence is high, especially after the game on Sunday. That win proved to ourselves that we can do this. We’re excited for Friday to get here and to get out on the court and finally play a real game.”
Duquesne will offer solid competition for the Buckeyes on Friday. Headlining the Dukes attack is senior forward Beth Friday. She earned the All-Atlantic 10 honors last season.
Junior Dukes guard Candace Futrell is the top returning scorer, and was named the Atlantic 10 Most Improved player.
“We’re anxious to play against some fresh faces,” said OSU women’s basketball coach Jim Foster. “We’ve broken the season down into three categories; the first is the pre-season, then you have conference, then post-conference. This is the start of our conference season play.”
The Dukes’ top three-point shooter, senior guard Nikolina Pender will also be expected to start in Friday’s game.
“Our defensive and offensive strategy may change from game to game, but what won’t change is our level of aggressiveness,” Matter said. “We want to cause turnovers and we want to run. If the aggressive play is there then we’re going to pull it out.”
The Buckeyes are focused after meshing during their European tour this summer. The team traveled through Europe for 12 days, going 5-0 against French and Swiss teams and gaining real-game experience together as a team.
“So far everything’s been going good,” Coleman said. “Going 5-0 in Europe was exciting. Our strengths right now are that we have good transitions and we’re a very athletic team. We have a great frontcourt and backcourt; with the returning seniors I think we’ll be good to go.”
The Buckeyes have new leadership for the upcoming season as Foster takes over as coach this season. Foster is the seventh women’s basketball coach in OSU history.
He has 24 years of experience, coaching previously at St. Joseph’s University and Vanderbit University.
“We’re starting to understand the offense and starting to develop some patience,” Foster said. “That patience will be tested (tomorrow). We’ve been practicing for almost six weeks with each other and we know when we’re going to cut certain ways and what will happen next. We’ll have to see how far along we are in our ability to take care of the ball because I think that’s what will determine our success this year.”
