Hoosiers Lack of Depth Spells Doom against Buckeyes
By Nick Jenkinson/Excel H Sports
After completing the largest comeback in program history yesterday the #13 Seed Indiana Hoosiers ran into the #5 Seed Ohio State Buckeyes on Thursday in the second round of the Allstate Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Thursday as the Buckeyes took down the Hoosiers 83-59. Ohio State improves to 25-6 on the season and will take on #4 Seed Minnesota tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 PM in the Quarterfinals. Indiana is 18-14 and will have to decide whether to accept a postseason tournament bid.
The Hoosiers started the Big Ten 0-10 and finished the regular season winning six of the last eight to get themselves into the Big Ten Tournament and guarantee a winning season for the 11th consecutive time. Indiana was down 20 points to #12 seed Nebraska in the first round and came back to win 82-79 to tie for the fourth largest comeback in a conference tournament game since 2013-14. Indiana played just six players against Nebraska and three played the entire game. Indiana had a quick turnaround and knew it was going to be a challenge against Ohio State team that did not have to play the day before.
Maya Makaluksy led Indiana with 21 points, Shay Ciezki scored 12 points and became the second Indiana Women’s Basketball player to score 700 points in a season Ciezki ended the game with 708 points this season and trails Tyra Buss who scored 763 points in the 2017-18 season. Ciezki scored 1,097 points in her two seasons in Bloomington after starting her career at Penn State.
Neveah Caffey added 10 points and Edessa Noyan pulled down 11 rebounds and scored 6 points. The Junior from Sweden had double digit rebounds for the second straight game and the sixth time this season. Lenee Beaumont scored 6 points, Jerni Kiaku and Jade Ondineme scored 2 points apiece and Chloe Spreen played but did not score. Faith Wiseman and Phoenix Stotjin did not play for the Hoosiers.
Indiana was 19-57 from the field for 33%, 5-21 from three-point range for 23% and 16-19 from the free throw line for 89%. Indiana had 33 rebounds, 12 assists, 2 steals, no blocks and 15 turnovers. The Hoosiers had 20 points in the paint, 10 second chance points, 8 points off turnovers, 5 fastbreak points and 4 bench points.
Jaloni Cambridge led Ohio State with 19 points, Chance Gray scored 18 points, and Kennedy Cambridge added 14 points and Buckeyes got 13 rebounds from Elsa Lemmila along with 6 points for her eighth game with double digit rebounds and her fifth consecutive game as she is force on the glass for the Buckeyes. Ohio State finished 30-74 from the field for 40%, 10-25 from three-point range for 40% and 13-16 from the free throw line for 81%. Ohio State had 45 rebounds, 21 assists, 8 steals, 5 blocks and 8 turnovers. The Buckeyes scored 34 points in the paint, 21 points off turnovers, 21 second chance points, 22 bench points and 12 fastbreak points.
Indiana jumped out to 12-6 lead with 3:02 left in the first quarter as the Buckeyes used a 6-0 run to tie the game 12-12 at the end of the first quarter. Shay Ciezki opened the second quarter 57 seconds in to give the Hoosiers a 14-12 lead. Ohio State tied the game 14-14 with Jaloni Cambridge free throws with 8:09 left before the break. Chance Gray hit a three to give the Buckeyes a 17-14 lead with 7:36 left as Buckeyes never trailed the rest of the way. Ohio State led 36-24 at halftime with 19-10 run after the Buckeyes took a three-point lead.
Ohio State outscored Indiana 25-16 as the Buckeyes led 61-40 at the end of the third quarter and the Buckeyes outscored 22-19 in the fourth quarter and 47-34 in the second half. The Hoosiers battled foul trouble throughout the game as Lenee Beaumont picked her third foul with 4:36 left in the second quarter and Indiana Head Coach Teri Moren “Needed our best payers on the Floor” and brought her back in the game and with 2:40 left before halftime she picked up her fourth foul. Neveah Caffey picked up her third foul 317 left in the second quarter. Edessa Noyan picked up her fourth foul with 7:58 left in the fourth quarter but no Hoosiers fouled out.
Ohio State will prepare for Minnesota in the Quarterfinals while Indiana heads back to Bloomington with a lot of decisions to be made including postseason bids, who returns and who leaves and how many players will have to be recruited out of the transfer portal. It’s a new era of College Basketball where if you don’t make the NCAA Tournament do want to play in another tournament and if decide to end the season then you get ready for a very busy offseason putting your next team together that could look completely different from year to year and that makes every offseason uncertain in this new era of College Basketball.
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