Trailing 14-9 with 6:51 remaining in the first half, the No. 8 Ohio State women’s basketball team (13-2, 4-1 Big Ten) finished the game on a 53-20 run and defeated Michigan (6-11, 0-5 Big Ten) 62-34 Sunday at the Schottenstein Center.
“They’re a young team,” OSU coach Jim Foster said. “They came in here very well prepared, they did very good things and we had to make some adjustments.
“We did what we should do, and they did what they’re capable of doing at this point in time.”
Junior center Jessica Davenport and sophomore guard Marscilla Packer led the Buckeyes with 15 points each. Davenport added nine rebounds, and Packer was 3-for-5 from 3-point range.
“I was getting to open spots,” Packer said. “I think it’s my responsibility to call for the ball when I’m open and sometimes I don’t do that.”
Senior forward Debbie Merrill and junior guard Brandie Hoskins both scored in double figures. Merrill scored 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting and grabbed 8 rebounds; Hoskins scored 11 points, all in the second half.
The Buckeye defense alternated between man-to-man and zone, forcing 21 turnovers and holding Michigan to 25 percent shooting for the game, including 0-for-12 from 3-point range.
Michigan’s leading scorer for the season, sophomore center Ta’Shia Walker, scored only four points on 1-for-7 shooting.
“We knew that Ohio State plays man,” Michigan coach Cheryl Burnett said. “They’ll throw a little 2-3 out at you and play a little matchup out of it.
“We were prepared for all of them, but being prepared and actually doing it on the court are two different things.”
Both offenses started slowly. After turning the ball over five times, the Buckeyes scored their first two points 3:54 into the game on a layup by Davenport.
“It was really frustrating for the first five minutes of the game,” Merrill said. “I just felt we couldn’t get into a flow. We were getting shots, but we couldn’t get into an offensive rhythm.”
The Wolverines missed their first 13 field goal attempts, but only trailed 4-2 when sophomore forward Katie Dierdorf scored seven minutes into the game.
“I didn’t think we were taking the open shot,” Dierdorf said. “We were trying to shoot the contested shot and the harder shot. We just need to execute.”
Michigan shot just 6-for-28 from the field in the first half, but led by as many as five points. The Wolverines grabbed 11 offensive rebounds in the half and outrebounded the Buckeyes 20-15.
“We felt like for 18 minutes we played a brilliant basketball game,” Burnett said. “Then everything went south.
OSU closed the half on a 9-0 run and took a 23-16 halftime lead.
“We know what happened the first 10 minutes, and we know what happened the last 30,” Foster said. “I try to focus on the 30 because that’s what makes us a good basketball team.”
The Buckeyes took control of the game in the second half, shooting 55.6 percent from the field. An 11-0 run early in the second half, started by back-to-back 3-point plays from Hoskins, gave the Buckeyes a 40-20 lead and put the game out of reach.
“I think in the second half we executed our transition,” senior guard Kim Wilburn said. “We had an offensive flow.
“More people were cutting and moving with the ball instead of stopping and staring.”
OSU regained control of the boards in the second half, finishing the game with 38-29 rebounding edge.
“We stopped being a sieve on the glass,” Foster said. “We started to take responsibility for boxing out.”
With the win, OSU improved to 7-0 against the Wolverines under Foster. The Buckeyes hold a 40-6 advantage in the all-time series.
“7,000 people showed up, so now in my fourth year here at Ohio State I’m starting to understand that Ohio State-Michigan is something other than a football rivalry,” Foster said.
The Buckeyes return to action against Indiana (9-7, 3-2 Big Ten) Thursday, at the Schottenstein Center.
