Women’s Basketball: No. 5 Buckeyes secure 20th win of the season after dominating third quarter against Minnesota

Eric Vah
Fri, 09 Feb 2024 16:45:42 +0000
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The Ohio State women’s basketball team takes a timeout during the No.13 Ohio State-Minnesota game Wednesday. Ohio State won 93-63. Credit: Katie Good | Asst. Photo Editor

For the third game in a row, No. 5 Ohio State had complete control of the third quarter.?

The Buckeyes (20-3, 11-1 Big Ten) defeated Minnesota (14-9, 4-8 Big Ten) 71-47 Thursday at Williams Arena for their 10th consecutive win after outscoring the Golden Gophers 26-7 in the third period.?

Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff said the development of sophomore forward Cotie McMahon and graduate guard Celeste Taylor have helped the team immensely, as they hit their 20th win of the season.??

“Cotie wasn’t playing her best basketball prior to Christmas, but after that break, she’s practiced really well and played really well and I think each week Celeste gets a little more comfortable,” McGuff said. “I think those two players are so important to us that as they’ve gotten better the team has gotten better.”?

After a sluggish first half, Ohio State quickly blew open the game in the third and never looked back.??

Graduate guard Jacy Sheldon quickly got things going for Ohio State, knocking down a triple 10 seconds into the quarter pushing its lead to 32-24. Sheldon finished with 12 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the floor and 2-of-8 from distance.?

A fast break layup off a Golden Gopher turnover from Taylor 90 seconds later gave the Buckeyes their first double-digit lead of the game. Taylor scored a team-high 14 points on 7-of-16 shooting.?

Taylor said Minnesota forced the Buckeyes to slow down their pace on offense, which helped them get the ball out in transition for points off turnovers.?

“We were falling in love with the 3-point line where we probably should have attacked more,” Taylor said. “They were packing the paint so coach [McGuff] made some adjustments for us and helped us out to make sure that we got downhill and did score at the rim.”

Sheldon converted on another fast-break layup for Ohio State at the 5:03 mark in the third, extending its lead to 17. Minnesota freshman guard/forward Grace Grocholski answered with a three to end a 14-2 Buckeye run to start the third.?

Grocholski finished with 8 points for the Golden Gophers on 3-of-10 shooting.?

However, Ohio State finished the quarter strong thanks to a three from redshirt-senior guard Rikki Harris and another from redshirt-sophomore guard Emma Shumate within the final two minutes of the quarter to give Ohio State a 55-31 lead heading into the fourth.?

Despite a big lead for the Buckeyes, Taylor didn’t take her foot off the gas as she hit back-to-back jumpers followed by a block as Ohio State led Minnesota 64-40 with 4:59 remaining.?

Taylor added another fast-break layup with 3:36 left to extend its lead to 25, its largest of the game.?

McGuff said the team showed more effort coming out of the locker room after halftime.

“I thought our pace was much better, our ball movement was better,” McGuff said. “We got to the rim, we got open threes, and our defense stayed pretty consistent throughout.”

For Minnesota, graduate guard Janay Sanders led the way scoring 12 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter. Sanders shot 5-of-9 from the floor for the Golden Gophers.??

Ohio State travels to East Lansing, Michigan, to take on Michigan State Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Breslin Center. The Buckeyes previously defeated the Spartans at home 70-65 on Jan. 14.?

The game will be exclusively streamed on Peacock.?