Ohio State women’s basketball trounces Nebraska; earns 3-seed for Big Ten tournament

Jacqueline Hobson
Mon, 02 Mar 2015 05:47:17 +0000
Basketball, Sports, Ameryst Alston, basketball, Buckeyes, Kelsey Mitchell, ohio state, osu, Shayla Cooper

The Ohio State women’s basketball team won 10 of its final 12 regular season games, securing the No. 3 seed in the Big Ten Tournament.

OSU (21-9, 13-5) capped that run with a 78-60 win against Nebraska (20-9, 10-8) on Sunday in Lincoln, Neb.

Freshman guard Kelsey Mitchell led the Buckeyes with 28 points in the contest to go along with a career-high 10 rebounds.

However, the real star of the show could have been sophomore forward Shayla Cooper.

Coming off the bench, the 6-foot-2-inch transfer from Georgetown scored 13 points and grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds.

The Buckeyes blew the game open with a 15-0 run to close the first half, capitalizing on nine Nebraska turnovers. However, in front of a crowd of 8,418, Nebraska refused to go down easy.

The Cornhuskers kept up with the Buckeyes during the beginning of the second half before a lay-in by Mitchell settled the crowd by sparking a 9-0 run that put the Cornhuskers away for good.

Mitchell has moved into third place on the OSU single-season scoring list with 736 points so far this season and has helped the Buckeyes gain momentum on a four-game win streak to close the regular season. Heading into the matchup, Mitchell was second in the nation with 24.4 points per game this year.

Junior guard Ameryst Alston said before the Buckeyes took on Iowa last week that it was a goal for the team to have a high seed in the Big Ten Tournament so they could sit out the first two rounds.

The Buckeyes have achieved that goal with their third seed and will have the chance to watch any possible opponent play before they take the court on Friday.

The Big Ten Tournament is scheduled to take place in Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill., from Wednesday through Sunday.