In a season which has seen more downs than ups lately, one thing has remained constant for the No. 25 Ohio State women’s basketball team — the ability to win at home.
The Buckeyes brought a 10-0 home record to last night’s Big Ten Conference matchup with No. 15 Minnesota at the Schottenstein Center.
OSU lost its previous two games against ranked opponents on the road, but the Buckeyes found home more inviting and were able to dispose of the Golden Gophers in a 66-58 conference win.
“Minnesota is a very talented offensive basketball team,” OSU coach Jim Foster said. “Our defense did a pretty good job of being active on them.”
With the victory, the Buckeyes remain in a tie for third with Michigan State in the Big Ten standings, behind leader Penn State and Purdue.
In two losses last week, OSU had a number of opportunities to win, but were unable to keep late leads and make plays when needed. While the Buckeyes started slowly in the first half, they were able to weather the storm and trail only 28-24 at halftime.
“I think our defense played good enough in the first half to stay in the game,” Foster said. “We are still a work in progress.”
In that opening half, the Buckeyes’ offense belonged almost entirely to point guard Kim Wilburn.
After Wilburn scored her first two points of the night on a six-foot jumper to give OSU a 12-11 lead, the Buckeyes began to struggle on offense.
For more than six minutes, OSU, which committed 12 first-half turnovers, was held scoreless by the Gopher defense. Forward Courtney Coleman finally stopped the drought when she hit a breakaway lay-up with just over eight minutes remaining in the half.
However, the Gophers were never able to take full advantage of the Buckeyes’ struggles. During that six-minute period, Minnesota scored only six points on baskets by forward Kadidja Andersson and center Janel McCarville, along with two free throws from Whalen.
That’s when Wilburn went to work.
She first nailed a free throw, cutting the deficit to 19-15. Wilburn followed that with a lay-up, bringing the Buckeyes to within one. Wilburn would score OSU’s last 10 points of the half.
“Kim did some terrific things tonight,” Foster said. “She’s a freshman point guard, and we’ll get better as she gets better.”
Wilburn tied Coleman for team lead with 18 points. Guard Caity Matter added 14.
But while Wilburn was single-handedly leading the Buckeyes’ offensive attack, Minnesota would not go away.
Leading by just one, guard Shannon Schonrock extended the Minnesota advantage to 22-19 with a long jumper. Forward Kim Prince and McCarville then exposed the inside of the OSU defense when they hit short jumpers, pushing the Gopher lead to seven.
Wilburn closed out the half in style when she nailed her first trey as a Buckeye from the right side just as the halftime buzzer sounded.
In the second half, Wilburn finally got some help from her teammates.
“I just tried to execute the offense a little better in the second half,” Wilburn said. “I just had to take better looks and get my teammates involved.”
The Gophers continued to hold a small one-point margin before the Buckeye offense went on a late run.
OSU took its first lead since the first half when Coleman hit a small jumper with just over 16 minutes remaining in the game.
The two teams traded leads until forward LaToya Turner hit both a bucket and a free throw, giving the Buckeyes a 44-39 lead. Gopher forward Corrin Von Wald cut the OSU lead to one after she hit the Gophers’ fifth three-pointer of the night.
But that would be as close as the Gophers would get.
Led by Coleman and Turner, the Buckeyes extended their lead to 48-43 with just under seven minutes remaining in the contest. Matter then got into the action, hitting both a short jumper and a trey to push the lead to 53-43.
“I started doing what Coach told me to do,” Matter said. “I made some adjustments and was able to come off screens better in the second half.”
The lead grew to as large as 61-45 before the Gophers began hitting late threes to close out the game.
“We know we are an athletic team,” Coleman said. “We were able to get the rebounds and pushed the ball down the court. Everyone just ran to the right places.”
Coming into the game, Minnesota guard Lindsey Whalen was averaging over 20 points a contest and was ranked No. 2 in the Big Ten in scoring; however, the Buckeye defense limited Whalen to just five points on 1-of-4 shooting.
