Buckeyes Press Dooms Indiana Women
by: Nick Jenkinson/Excel H Sports
Sixth ranked Excel H Sports, Ohio State Buckeyes held off the eighth ranked Excel H Sports Indiana Hoosiers 74-69 Sunday Afternoon at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio in a top ten matchup that lived up to the billing with 3 ties and 13 lead changes. The Buckeyes are 10-1 in the Big Ten and 19-3 overall and are tied for first place with Iowa in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes are 10-1 after beating 93-85 on Saturday in College Park. Indiana is 18-3 overall and 9-2 in the Big Ten and will host Michigan State on Thursday inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Sara Scalia led the Hoosiers with 25 points along with 14 points and 9 rebounds apiece from Mackenzie Holmes and Yarden Garzon. Chloe Moore-McNeil added 10 points, Lexus Bargesser got the start in place of the injured Sydney Parrish finished with 6 points. Lilly Meister, Lenee Beaumont and Juliana LaMendola did not score off the bench and combined for 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal. The Hoosiers finished 25-54 for 46% from the field, 6-16 from three-point range for 37% and 13-18 from the free throw line for 72%. Indiana had 38 rebounds, 13 assists, 6 steals and 2 blocks. The Hoosiers had a season high 23 turnovers and struggled against the press that Ohio State threw at them throughout the game. Parrish missed her fourth game due to a foot injury. Parrish was not on crutches but had a boot on her right foot.
Mackenize Holmes is 65 points away from breaking Tyra Buss all-time scoring mark 2,364 points as Holmes sits at 2,320 points. The Gorham, Maine native is now fifth on the schools’ all-time rebounds list with 932 as she passed Shirley Bryant who had 924 rebounds from 1992-95. Mackenize sits at 235 career blocks which is second all-time behind Quacy Barnes who had 269 from 1995-98. Holmes extends her school record to 954 career field goals made.
Ohio State was led in scoring by Jacy Sheldon with 25 points, Cotie McMahon added 20 points, Taylor Thierry and Rebeka Mikulasikova added 11 point each. Celeste Taylor added 5 points while Indianapolis native Rikki Harris scored the only two points off the bench for either team. Eboni Walker, Emma Shumate and Madison Greene did not score and combined for 2 rebounds, 2 assists and a block. The Buckeyes finished 27-60 from the field for 45%, 9-21 from three-point range for 43% and 11-16 from the free throw line for 68%. The Buckeyes had 29 rebounds, 16 assists, 10 steals, 4 blocks and committed 13 turnovers.
Mackenize Holmes scored the first 7 points off the game for the Hoosiers as neither team was shooting the ball well form the field, but Ohio State finished the quarter on 8-0 run to lead 18-11 as Indiana went scoreless for the final 2:09 of the first quarter. Indiana had a strong second quarter outscoring Ohio State 26-14 to lead 37-32 going into the locker room. With the game tied 27-27 with 5:49 left in the second quarter the Hoosiers finished the half outscoring the Ohio State 10-5.
In the third quarter Ohio State turned up the pressure and forced Indiana to speed up that led to a lot of turnovers and resulted in the Buckeyes outscoring the Hoosiers 23-10 in the period to lead 55-47 going into the final ten minutes. Indiana outscored Ohio State 22-19 in the final quarter but the Hoosiers could not get over the hump getting within three points with 16 seconds left on three made Sara Scalia free throws to make it 72-69 Taylor Theirry made the first free throw and missed the second with 15 seconds left to make it 73-69. Scalia missed an off balanced three pointer with 10 seconds left as the Hoosiers had to foul and sent Jacy Sheldon to the free throw line. Sheldon missed the first and hit the second with 7 seconds left as Chloe Moore-McNeil missed a three pointer with 2 seconds left and Celeste Taylor grabbed the defensive rebound as Ohio State have won two in a row against the Hoosiers and beat Indiana in Columbus for the first time since 2019 snapping a three-game home losing streak against the Hoosiers. The Buckeyes lead the all-time series 62-26.
(The following is credit sourced to Ohio State University Athletics)
- This is the Buckeyes’ second top-10 win of the season and fourth against a ranked opponent.
- The Buckeye defense has forced at least 20 turnovers in 15 games this season as the Hoosiers committed 23 turnovers today.
- OSU’s defense has totaled at least 10 steals in 13 games this season, finishing with 10 steals today.
- Jacy Sheldon was the first Buckeye in double figures, scoring 10+ for the 19th time this season and finishing with 25 points. This is her ninth 20-point game of the season.
- Cotie McMahon’s 17th game of the season with 10+ points was good for 20 points. This is her fifth 20-point game of the season. She also added seven rebounds and five assists.
- Rebeka Mikulášiková finished with 11 points, her 10th game this season with double figures.
- Taylor Thierry scored in double figures for the 16th time this season with 11 points today.
- Sheldon moved up to eighth in program history in career steals (238) and 12th in career assists (347).
- Thierry became the 27th player in program history to record 140+ career steals.
- Q1: Ohio State had seven assists on seven made field goals in the quarter, including shooting 4-of-7 (.571) from long range.
- Q2: McMahon scored seven points in the quarter on 3-of-5 shooting with a free throw.
- Q3: Ohio State used a 23-10 third quarter with 8-of-15 (.533) shooting to gain the 55-47 lead going into the fourth.
- Q4: Sheldon had 12 points in the quarter.
What They Said
Head Coach Kevin McGuff:
- “[In the second half], I thought we were much more aggressive and energetic in our press. We turned Indiana over or at least took them out of their rhythm. They’re really hard to guard. You let them just walk the ball up, execute and throw the ball into Mackenzie Holmes – they’re really hard to guard. I though we needed the press and the third quarter we were just much better at it.”
Up Next
Ohio State travels to Minnesota on Thursday for a 9 p.m. ET tip-off. The game will be broadcast on Peacock and AM1460.
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