Elite Eight bid falls short

Ohio State’s Samantha Prahalis scored 19 points but it wasn’t enough as the Buckeyes lost to Stanford, 84-66. (AP Photo)
The Ohio State women’s basketball team’s trip down the Road to the Final Four came to an end at the Berkeley Regional semifinal as the third-seeded Buckeyes lost to the second-seed Stanford Cardinal, 84-66, at [...]
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WBK: No. 3 Ohio State Falls to No. 2 Stanford, 84-66, In Berkeley Regional

Freshman Samantha Prahalis led the Buckeyes with 19 points and six assists
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WBK: Ohio State Trails Stanford 37-35 at Half

Freshman Samantha Prahalis leads all scorers with 12 points at the break.
Continue reading at Ohio State Women’s Basketball Headline News

Lavender’s 21 Points Powers Ohio State’s Win Over Wisconsin

By Rusty Miller, Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — After racing to a share of a fifth straight Big Ten title, Ohio State coach Jim Foster compared his team to another athlete who could do a lot of things.

“We’ve got a little bit of Ali in us,” Foster said with a smile. “We can dance and we can hang on the ropes and slug.”

Center Jantel Lavender had 21 points and 13 rebounds and Samantha Prahalis fueled the 14th-ranked Buckeyes’ fastbreak to lead the way to a 75-53 win over Wisconsin on Thursday night.

For the full story: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5htl941rOKraSGgaAoCns2SAMCPjQD96JL51G0

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Buckeye ladies run over Michigan, 70-50

Scoff if you must for me covering women’s basketball, but there’s probably a few things you know about this blog if you’ve followed it for any length of time¹. First, this is Title IX compliant blog and I find myself (earnestly) interested in the women’s hoops team though I don’t always have the time to follow the team faithfully.  Second, I hate Michigan.  I hate Michigan with every aching muscle in this tired body of mine.  I hate Michigan and will exhaust all avenues of action until that great menace of our time is eventually conquered.

Evidently, our ladies hoops team felt the same way.  Earlier this day in front of a not-so-packed Schottenstein Center crowd of ~4,000 fans², the lady Buckeyes manhandled smited-in-a-gender-neutral-tone Michigan 70-50. The tone for the beatdown was set early into the matchup.  Michigan scored the game’s first 4 points in the game’s first two minutes.  The Buckeyes countered by scoring the next 22 over the next 8 minutes.  Up 22-4, the Buckeyes eventually settled with a 44-22 lead at intermission. With the enemy demoralized at halftime, the ~20pt lead held for a 70-50 victory.  The 22-0 run in question came from some opportunistic defense by the Buckeyes.  During that period, the Buckeyes tallied six steals from Shavelle Little (x2), Star Allen, Samantha Prahalis, Brittany Johnson, and Sarah Schulze.  The team finished with 9 steals for the game.

Jantel Lavender ain’t the lady you mess with, a point made particularly strongly with her performance this game.  Her 28 points (13/19fg) and 8 rebounds were game highs for all players involved in this contest.  11 of those points came in the second half with the Buckeyes principally in cruise control, but they were necessary as she and Ashlee Trebilcock were the only consistent sources of offense for the Buckeyes after intermission.  Trebilcock chipped in 7 second half points, finishing with 16 points for the game.  Trebilcock and Lavender combined for all but 8 of the Buckeyes’ 26 second half points.  Of those 8, 4 points came in the final minutes from reserves with garbage time in full gear.  Further, of those 8, only two came from a field goal (a Prahalis jumper with about 6 minutes left to play).

With the victory in the conference opener, the #17 lady Buckeyes improve to 10-2 overall.  In spite of the great record entering conference play, the tale of the lady Buckeyes seems to mirror the trajectory of the football team: good, but not great.  Great, but not elite.  Whatever terms you want to use, the ladies are consistently good enough to thrive in the Big Ten and enter the NCAA tournament every year.  Yet, it’s just not Tennessee, Stanford or Duke.  The Buckeyes have played 4 marquee games this young season by my measure, though I certainly don’t claim to be an expert on women’s basketball.  Of those 4, the Buckeyes have won 2.  The Buckeyes hosted now 9-2 Syracuse in their third game of the season and won 78-71.  Earlier this month, the Buckeyes traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska and handed the ‘Huskers their third loss of the season, though it was certainly no easy task to do so (see: above point made about Jantel Lavender not being the lady you should mess with).  Both were tournament teams last year.

The losses, however, stick out.  4 days after the Syracuse game, the Buckeyes traveled to Auburn³ and lost to the #10 Tigers in overtime 87-80.  In their biggest matchup of the season, the Buckeyes were smothered all game by #2 North Carolina in front of a home crowd in Columbus.  This doesn’t bode entirely well for what I want to see most from this team: a tournament run in March.  Jim Foster has had great success in Columbus since coming over from Vanderbilt.  Sadly, in spite of some great teams — one that even reached the 30 win plateau — the furthest he’s gone in the tournament with the Buckeyes is the Sweet 16 (with said 30 win team).  Worse yet, the past two seasons have ended in the first round.

Perhaps a strong tournament push is feasible for this year’s Buckeyes, though this team lacks the completeness of the 2005, 2006 and 2007 teams.  After all, this year’s team has who I think is far and away the best conference player (Jantel Lavender, conference leader in points and rebounds).  Samantha Prahalis, the freshman all-everything from New York and probably the most important 2008 recruit in Buckeye athletics not named Terrelle Pryor, could be the difference here.  Presently, she’s struggling with her 3pt shot (2-7 against Michigan, ~35% on the season) and with turning the ball over (6 TOs against Michigan, ~4 a game on the season).  Should the college game slow down for her, this team could be pretty lethal at the end of the season.  With Lavender in the interior, Trebilcock on the outside (~50% from 3) and Prahalis setting it all up, the Buckeyes should have the necessary prerequisites for success.

This might be just my little spiel, but I encourage anyone in and around Columbus who has some spare time and money to burn to attend these games.  If costs prohibit you from following the Buckeyes out to Glendale this winter, it shouldn’t prohibit you from showing up to the Schott and supporting our lady hoopsters.  Of course, I say that right as the Buckeyes take the next 10 days off for the holidays and play their next game on New Year’s Eve against Northwestern (in Evanston).  The next home game is on January 4th as the Buckeyes host 8-4 traditional conference contenders Michigan State.  Tickets never cost more than for these things, and that’s for the lower bowl at the Schott.  Odds are, you can buy a ticket and just “upgrade” during the game.

Show up, make some noise, and cheer on our lady ballers.

1. Most importantly, I need to do something to justify having this shitty blog in the Big Ten Bloggers RSS feed
2. who were making as much noise and fanfare as they do for the men’s team, no doubt…
3. Auburn is an IMPOSSIBLE place to travel to unless you can drive there within a couple hours.  Why the Buckeyes agreed to trek down to Auburn is beyond me.

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Tar Heels Shut Down Buckeyes In 2nd Half

COLUMBUS, Ohio — In a game of lengthy runs, No. 2 North Carolina saved the best spurt for last.

Jessica Breland scored 29 points and the Tar Heels held No. 18 Ohio State scoreless for more than nine minutes of the second half to take a 72-63 victory Wednesday night in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

"In the second half we showed them a zone, then matched up, and then we went back to a zone around the 8-minute timeout," North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "That messed them up some."

Breland, averaging 13.5 points a game, had 21 in the opening half as the Tar Heels (9-0) opened a 41-37 lead. Cetera DeGraffenreid added 14 points and six assists and Rashanda McCants had 10 points for North Carolina, which improved to 21-9 against the Big Ten and evened its record against the Buckeyes at 3-3.

Breland knew she was going to have a big game after her first long-distance shot of the night.

"It was that first 3-pointer," she said. "After I hit that, I felt I could hit any shot on the court."

Jantel Lavender had 27 points and 13 rebounds for the Buckeyes (6-2), who led 52-49 with 11:56 left before missing their next 12 shots from the field with six turnovers over a span of 9 minutes, 20 seconds. Star Allen added 12 points, Ashlee Trebilcock had 10 points and Samantha Prahalis had 13 assists.

The Tar Heels sealed the outcome with a 17-0 second-half run.

"When they went into that zone, we went into a few-minute lapse," Prahalis said. "It only takes 2 minutes and the game can be flipped."

Ahead 41-37 at the half, the Tar Heels pulled away at the outset of the second half. McCants hit a jumper before Breland scored on consecutive possessions, once on a baseline drive and then on a nifty pass from McCants to make it 47-37. They hit their first three shots of the half, while Ohio State missed its first four and had three turnovers over the opening three minutes.

Just as suddenly, the game swung the other way.

Prahalis had two breathtaking assists. On the first, she dribbled behind her back at midcourt to avoid a defender and then fired a no-look pass to Lavender for a layup. She then lobbed a court-length pass to Allen for a breakaway layup.

The Tar Heels went almost six minutes without a point as the Buckeyes ran off 13 points in a row – eight by Lavender.

"That’s the way we play," Hatchell said. "At times we were really ragged."

The teams traded baskets until the Tar Heels regained the upper hand as Ohio State suddenly went cold. The Buckeyes led 52-49 on Lavender’s basket with 11:56 left but then didn’t score until Trebilcock hit two free throws with 2:36 left.

"They went zone and we didn’t execute the way we needed to when that happens. It’s that simple," Ohio State coach Jim Foster said. "Ball movement, ball reversals – it was just a mental block."

Lavender said the Buckeyes needed to take the blame for the lengthy drought.

"I don’t think it was the zone, it was us," she said. "We weren’t executing our offense very good and in transition that gave them baskets."

McCants’ free throw and a reverse layup by Chay Shegog tied it at 52 with 10:51 remaining. Breland then hit a follow, Iman McFarland scored off an assist by Shegog, McFarland hit a layup and Breland popped in a 10-footer to make it 60-52 with 5:23 left. McCants then scored inside and after the Tar Heels hit two free throws the lead was 64-52 with under 3½ minutes left.

Ohio State was 71-3 at home since the start of the 2004-05 season. The game was the first meeting between the teams since North Carolina won 75-67 on Dec. 18, 1980.

Hatchell wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the teams meet again – soon.

"We could see them again in the NCAA tournament," she said.

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Preview of Women’s Basketball vs. UNC

Who: Ohio State Buckeyes Women’s Basketball Team

What: ACC/Big Ten Challenge vs. North Carolina

Where: Value City Arena – Columbus, OH

When: Wednesday December 3, 2008 7:00pm

Important Info:   (www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com) – highlights listed below 

·       OSU ranked 18 – UNC ranked 2

·       Radio Coverage on WOSU 820 AM/ www.wosu.org and Television coverage on Big Ten Network

·       OSU leads series 3-2 and their last meeting was on 12/18/1980

·       The No. 2 Tar Heels are the highest-ranked opponent to play in Value City Arena since 1999 when Ohio State lost 64-56 to No. 2 Purdue Jan. 26, 1999.

·       Sophomore center Jantel Lavender, the Big Ten player of the week two weeks running, leads the Big Ten in scoring (21.7 ppg), rebounding (12.1 rpg) and offensive rebounds (3.8) as of Dec. 1. She ranks 14th nationally in scoring and eighth in rebounding.

·       Lavender has scored in double-figures in all 38 career games and has recorded a double-double in every game this season. She has 20 for her career and the Buckeyes are 16-4 in those games.

·       Freshman point guard Samantha Prahalis is second in the Big Ten with 5.0 assists per game. She had a season-high eight dimes in the overtime loss at Auburn and seven dimes in the win over Army. She also is tied for third in the conference in 3-point shooting with 14 makes.

·       Sophomore forward Sarah Schulze has provided a spark off the bench the last two games with 21 points and five 3FG’s. She recorded career-highs of 11 points and three 3FG’s vs. Dayton Sunday.

·       Ohio State owns the seventh-best winning percentage (.838) and has the ninth-most wins (109) in all of women’s basketball during the last four full years.

·       The Buckeyes have been ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 for 83-consecutive weeks.

·       Ohio State owns the most Big Ten titles with 11. This season they are attempting to become the first team to win five in a row since the Ohio State teams from 1983-87.

·       Ohio State has won 82-consecutive games at home against unranked opponents. The last unranked team to win in Columbus was Penn State, Feb. 3, 2002.

·       Ohio State is 71-3 at home since the start of the 2004-05 season. The Buckeyes are 98-7 all-time at home under head coach Jim Foster.

·       Ohio State has had four Big Ten Player of the Year selections the last four seasons; Jessica Davenport in 2005-07 and Jantel Lavender in 2008.

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No. 20 Ohio State Beats Dayton 76-61

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jantel Lavender scored 27 points and Samantha Prahalis had 17 to help No. 20 Ohio State rally from a 10-point deficit in the second half to beat Dayton 76-61 in the final of the Buckeye Classic.

Kristin Daugherty had 18 points and Justine Raterman 16 for the Flyers (4-3), who went up 49-39 when Kendel Ross hit a 3-pointer with 12:40 to play.

But Ohio State (6-1) answered with an 11-1 run that included Prahalis making a 3-pointer and a three-point play. Lavender ended the stretch with two free throws that tied it at 50.

Patrice Lalor gave the Flyers their last lead at 52-50 with 9:20 remaining but Lavender followed with a free throw and short jumper and Sarah Schulze hit a 3-pointer hit to put Ohio State ahead 56-51.

Dayton couldn’t get closer than five the rest of the way.

Ohio State’s Shavelle Little had five steals and six rebounds and Schulze came off the bench to score a career-high 11 points in the final 12 minutes.

The game featured nine lead changes and 11 ties. Raterman said the Flyers came out determined in the second half.

"We weren’t going to back down," she said. "I think that’s what they expected us to do."

Ohio State’s defense stepped up once Dayton took the 10-point lead and really made the difference, Raterman said.

"We kind of cracked under the pressure," said Dayton coach Jim Jabir, who cited Ohio State’s enthusiastic home crowd as another key factor.

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Lavender’s 22 Lead Buckeyes To Win

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hartford coach Jennifer Rizzotti expected a struggle, and she was right.

Jantel Lavender scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to help No. 20 Ohio State rebound from its first loss of the season and beat Hartford 63-45 on Tuesday night.

"I knew coming into this game it was not going to be easy," Rizzotti said. "Ohio State came back home after an overtime loss to Auburn and I knew they were going to play with great intensity."

None fit that description better than Lavender, who also had five assists and two blocked shots for the Buckeyes (4-1), who lost 87-80 in overtime at Auburn on Sunday.

"We wanted to play well tonight and win a game," Ohio State coach Jim Foster said of his team’s reaction to its loss. "You can’t make up for what you did and you have to look forward to get better and I thought we did a pretty good job of that tonight."

Samantha Prahalis added 11 points and Ashlee Trebilcock added 10 points. Star Allen chipped in with 12 rebounds as the Buckeyes held a 40-33 edge on the boards.

"As a team we wanted to deny them, especially after a loss," Trebilcock said. "I think we were extra pumped tonight. We wanted to go out and cause turnovers and create offense."

MaryLynne Schaefer was the lone Hartford player in double figures with 15 points. Diana Delva had 10 rebounds for the Hawks (3-2), who upset then-No. 6 Duke 53-51 last week in the DePaul Invitational.

The Hawks are in the midst of a 10-day road trip.

"It’s tough playing on the road this long," Rizzotti said. "To be able to face this caliber of teams in the postseason we need to learn how to play against them now. The only way we know how to get better at playing at this level is to travel to play these teams. It’s a good learning experience for our team."

The Buckeyes shot 54 percent from the field in building a 38-23 halftime lead and never trailed again. They were on top by 25 points midway through the second half.

"We knew Hartford was a good team. They are patient and just beat Duke," Lavender said. "We had to come out and play good defense tonight. We were ready tonight and Auburn helped prepare us for that."

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Auburn Beats Ohio State In OT

AUBURN, Ala. — Sherell Hobbs scored six of her 23 points in overtime to lift No. 20 Auburn to an 87-80 win over No. 17 Ohio State on Sunday.

Hobbs had a steal and layup with 54 seconds left in the extra period to seal the win for the Tigers (4-0). She also finished with eight rebounds and four steals and hit back-to-back baskets to spark a 6-0 run in OT that Ohio State (3-1) never overcame.

Alli Smalley also had 23 points, including hitting five 3-pointers. DeWanna Bonner added 17 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots for Auburn while Whitney Boddie had 14 points and 11 assists.

Jantel Lavender led Ohio State (3-1) with 20 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. Star Allen had 18 points and Samantha Prahalis scored 15, but also committed seven turnovers.

Auburn, which led by 11 points early in the second half, forced overtime on Smalley’s 3-pointer with 25 seconds left. Prahalis missed an off-balance jumper in the final seconds for Ohio State and Boddie’s desperation heave missed.

Ohio State had grabbed a six-point lead after overcoming the double-digit deficit. The Buckeyes then went just 2-for-7 shooting in overtime while Auburn was 6-for-9.

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