-
New here? Register here now for access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Plus, stay connected and follow BP on Instagram @buckeyeplanet and Facebook.
LGHL No. 8 Ohio State women’s basketball falls apart late, loses to No. 1 UCLA, 65-52
- News
- 0 Replies
No. 8 Ohio State women’s basketball falls apart late, loses to No. 1 UCLA, 65-52
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images
The Buckeyes offense couldn’t match their defense, falling in a closely contested game to the undefeated top team Ian the nation.
The No. 8 Ohio State women’s basketball team (20-2, 9-2) had a tall task in front of them with the No. 1 ranked UCLA Bruins (22-0, 10-0), but battled for four quarters before falling 65-52 behind a 19-point, 14-rebound, double-double from Lauren Betts.
The first half was a story of two different Ohio State teams. In the first quarter, the Buckeyes were defensively sound and their game plan for center Lauren Betts worked well. Instead of double or triple teaming the 6-foot-7 center, head coach Kevin McGuff allowed forward Ajae Petty and center Elsa Lemmilä to defend the big outright, jumping in front of her to prevent entry passes and easy looks.
Ohio State went ahead seven points thanks to a six-point run on the offensive side after getting defensive stops, scoring eight points off eight forced turnovers in the first quarter. Offensive threats Jaloni Cambridge and Cotie McMahon led the scoring in the first, combining for nine points, but once the two went to the bench for rest, the production fell off a cliff.
The Buckeyes went over six minutes between baskets from the first to the second quarter, and along the way the Bruins built an 11-point run to go ahead eight points on the Scarlet and Gray.
In the second quarter, the defense followed the offense’s lead and dipped. First, the turnovers Ohio State forced were suddenly now happening to them, instead. They came in the form of errant passes, reckless dribbling and forced passed that ended up in the hands of the Bruins.
Also, instead of stopping passes from getting to Betts, Petty tried to play physical one-on-one defense from behind, but with a four-inch advantage in height the UCLA junior backed up Petty to the tune of six points while Petty was on the court.
McGuff adjusted and brought in 6-foot-6 freshman center Elsa Lemmilä who played poised both defensively and offensively. The Finnish big scored two consecutive baskets for the Buckeyes, with the first coming off a sound pass from the younger Cambridge, finding the center open for an open layup. On the next basket, Lemmilä picked up a rebound and dribbled through two defenders, including Betts, to hit a hardly fought layup.
Lemmilä scored six points in the first half, all under the basket, going 3-of-5. The rest of the Buckeyes went 3-of-29 from the floor, with Cambridge leading the team at halftime with seven points.
However, the defensive intensity returned in the second quarter and the Buckeyes held the Bruins to 12 points in the quarter. Even so, the home side went into halftime with a six-point lead, holding the visiting Buckeyes to just eight points in the second quarter.
However, Betts was still doing the most damage and scored 13 points with 10 rebounds in the first half, accounting for over a third of the Bruins 30 points in the firsts two quarters.
In the second half, coach McGuff brought back out this starting five, which is normal for the 12th-year Ohio State coach, but waited nearly seven minutes to bring the hot hand of Lemmilä back into the game.
Petty tried to move around the paint and hit shots, but was met with Betts or fouled and went to the free throw line. Unfortunately for the graduate senior, she didn’t hit any of the four she took through three quarters and had zero points on 0-of-5 shooting.
Regardless, the Buckeye defense held UCLA back long enough to get some opportunistic baskets courtesy of McMahon. The junior went to the paint and used her speed and agility to find open looks. Including picking up a loose ball in the paint on the defensive end and running the length of the floor to hit a layup.
Ohio State outscored UCLA 18-14 in the third quarter, courtesy of 16 points split evenly between McMahon and Cambridge. Including a rare three-point shot, only the second in their of first 14 attempts in the matchup.
At the end of the third quarter, the Buckeyes cut the lead down to two points, and tied the game 34 seconds into the fourth quarter. However, UCLA star guard Kiki Rice took the game into her hands, scoring the next four points. It prompted McGuff to call a timeout to regroup, still having a chance at dethroning the top team in the nation.
Then Ohio State’s offense went cold, and so did their defense. The Buckeyes missed five consecutive shots and the Bruins pushed their lead to 13 points, requiring another timeout from McGuff, hoping to wake up the visiting team that lost intensity after the quick run of Rice at the start of the period.
It took 5:51 of game clock between Ohio State baskets. In that time, the Bruins went on a 15-point run to push their lead to an insurmountable 18 points with 3:16 remaining in the game. The Buckeyes went into full court press mode again, m but it was far too late.
Cambridge and McMahon led the Buckeyes with 18 points and 14 points, respectively. Cambridge added eight rebounds and six assists.
Rice scored 12 points for the Bruins, with six coming in the fourth quarter. Forward Gabriela Jaquez scored 15 points, going 4-of-5 in the fourth quarter with a team leading nine points in the frame.
The Buckeyes stay in Los Angeles with a Saturday matchup against the No. 7 USC Trojans. Before Ohio State’s game against the Bruins, the Trojans defeated the Wisconsin Badgers 86-64, in Madison, before heading back home to prepare for Saturday.
Last season, the Trojans and Scarlet and Gray met in Las Vegas, Nevada to start the 23-24 season. Superstar guard JuJu Watkins debuted her NCAA career with 33 points, defeating Ohio State 83-74.
Continue reading...
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images
The Buckeyes offense couldn’t match their defense, falling in a closely contested game to the undefeated top team Ian the nation.
The No. 8 Ohio State women’s basketball team (20-2, 9-2) had a tall task in front of them with the No. 1 ranked UCLA Bruins (22-0, 10-0), but battled for four quarters before falling 65-52 behind a 19-point, 14-rebound, double-double from Lauren Betts.
The first half was a story of two different Ohio State teams. In the first quarter, the Buckeyes were defensively sound and their game plan for center Lauren Betts worked well. Instead of double or triple teaming the 6-foot-7 center, head coach Kevin McGuff allowed forward Ajae Petty and center Elsa Lemmilä to defend the big outright, jumping in front of her to prevent entry passes and easy looks.
Ohio State went ahead seven points thanks to a six-point run on the offensive side after getting defensive stops, scoring eight points off eight forced turnovers in the first quarter. Offensive threats Jaloni Cambridge and Cotie McMahon led the scoring in the first, combining for nine points, but once the two went to the bench for rest, the production fell off a cliff.
The Buckeyes went over six minutes between baskets from the first to the second quarter, and along the way the Bruins built an 11-point run to go ahead eight points on the Scarlet and Gray.
In the second quarter, the defense followed the offense’s lead and dipped. First, the turnovers Ohio State forced were suddenly now happening to them, instead. They came in the form of errant passes, reckless dribbling and forced passed that ended up in the hands of the Bruins.
Also, instead of stopping passes from getting to Betts, Petty tried to play physical one-on-one defense from behind, but with a four-inch advantage in height the UCLA junior backed up Petty to the tune of six points while Petty was on the court.
McGuff adjusted and brought in 6-foot-6 freshman center Elsa Lemmilä who played poised both defensively and offensively. The Finnish big scored two consecutive baskets for the Buckeyes, with the first coming off a sound pass from the younger Cambridge, finding the center open for an open layup. On the next basket, Lemmilä picked up a rebound and dribbled through two defenders, including Betts, to hit a hardly fought layup.
LoniElsa pic.twitter.com/DXmMaDjAac
— Ohio State Women’s Basketball (@OhioStateWBB) February 6, 2025
Lemmilä scored six points in the first half, all under the basket, going 3-of-5. The rest of the Buckeyes went 3-of-29 from the floor, with Cambridge leading the team at halftime with seven points.
However, the defensive intensity returned in the second quarter and the Buckeyes held the Bruins to 12 points in the quarter. Even so, the home side went into halftime with a six-point lead, holding the visiting Buckeyes to just eight points in the second quarter.
However, Betts was still doing the most damage and scored 13 points with 10 rebounds in the first half, accounting for over a third of the Bruins 30 points in the firsts two quarters.
In the second half, coach McGuff brought back out this starting five, which is normal for the 12th-year Ohio State coach, but waited nearly seven minutes to bring the hot hand of Lemmilä back into the game.
Petty tried to move around the paint and hit shots, but was met with Betts or fouled and went to the free throw line. Unfortunately for the graduate senior, she didn’t hit any of the four she took through three quarters and had zero points on 0-of-5 shooting.
Regardless, the Buckeye defense held UCLA back long enough to get some opportunistic baskets courtesy of McMahon. The junior went to the paint and used her speed and agility to find open looks. Including picking up a loose ball in the paint on the defensive end and running the length of the floor to hit a layup.
Ohio State outscored UCLA 18-14 in the third quarter, courtesy of 16 points split evenly between McMahon and Cambridge. Including a rare three-point shot, only the second in their of first 14 attempts in the matchup.
At the end of the third quarter, the Buckeyes cut the lead down to two points, and tied the game 34 seconds into the fourth quarter. However, UCLA star guard Kiki Rice took the game into her hands, scoring the next four points. It prompted McGuff to call a timeout to regroup, still having a chance at dethroning the top team in the nation.
Then Ohio State’s offense went cold, and so did their defense. The Buckeyes missed five consecutive shots and the Bruins pushed their lead to 13 points, requiring another timeout from McGuff, hoping to wake up the visiting team that lost intensity after the quick run of Rice at the start of the period.
It took 5:51 of game clock between Ohio State baskets. In that time, the Bruins went on a 15-point run to push their lead to an insurmountable 18 points with 3:16 remaining in the game. The Buckeyes went into full court press mode again, m but it was far too late.
Cambridge and McMahon led the Buckeyes with 18 points and 14 points, respectively. Cambridge added eight rebounds and six assists.
Rice scored 12 points for the Bruins, with six coming in the fourth quarter. Forward Gabriela Jaquez scored 15 points, going 4-of-5 in the fourth quarter with a team leading nine points in the frame.
What’s Next
The Buckeyes stay in Los Angeles with a Saturday matchup against the No. 7 USC Trojans. Before Ohio State’s game against the Bruins, the Trojans defeated the Wisconsin Badgers 86-64, in Madison, before heading back home to prepare for Saturday.
Last season, the Trojans and Scarlet and Gray met in Las Vegas, Nevada to start the 23-24 season. Superstar guard JuJu Watkins debuted her NCAA career with 33 points, defeating Ohio State 83-74.
Continue reading...
LGHL Game Preview: No. 8 Ohio State women’s basketball travels to No. 1 UCLA
- News
- 0 Replies
Game Preview: No. 8 Ohio State women’s basketball travels to No. 1 UCLA
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images
The Buckeyes and Bruins play for the second time in two seasons, but this time UCLA is the top team in the nation.
The old sports cliche of circling an opponent on the calendar when it gets released might be cheesy and overdone, but it’s hard to argue against teams doing it when they travel to Los Angeles for Big Ten women’s basketball. No. 8 Ohio State women’s basketball (20-1, 9-1) takes their trip west this week, starting with a matchup against the No. 1 UCLA Bruins (21-0, 9-0).
It’s a matchup where the Buckeyes enter as the underdogs, a rare place to be for the program so far in the 2024-25 season, but a quick look at the Bruins will show you that it's justified.
Both the Buckeyes and Bruins enter Wednesday night’s matchup near the top of the Big Ten. It’s a game featuring No. 1 and No. 2 in the conference, where a win for Ohio State puts them ahead of UCLA with seven games remaining. Lose and it’s a short turnaround time before facing the No. 7 USC Trojans on Saturday.
UCLA is the lone undefeated team in the country, despite going through injuries early in the season and head coach Cori Close needing to shift around her starting lineup to keep momentum going in Los Angeles.
In those 21 undefeated games, the Bruins beat four ranked opponents, although three of the four are no longer ranked. The lone standout victory was a big one, defeating the then-No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks to halt a 43-game winning streak for the defending national champions.
Leading the team is junior center Lauren Betts. The former Stanford recruit transferred south to UCLA where coach Close wasted no time getting the 6-foot-7 post presence on the court. Betts rewarded the program averaging 14.9 points and 9.3 rebounds per game in the Pac-12.
This year, Betts decided to get even better.
She has a stat line of 20.2 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.8 blocks per game. Each one a career high, but the most impressive and telling of the bunch is the assists. Last season, Betts averaged one assist per game, because the game plan was get the ball high to the only person who can reach it, then let them work.
Now, Betts still does that in bunches, but does so much more for this UCLA team. Betts now finds outlets when teams ultimately throw two or three defenders her way. To make matters worse for defenses, Betts also added better footwork and a mid-range game to her arsenal, so teams can’t camp under the rim anymore. If they do, Betts can use the open space in front to hit those short jumpers.
In the Bruins 79-53 win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Sunday, the big had a career-high 11 assists.
Last season, when the Bruins defeated Ohio State 77-71 in Columbus, Betts scored 17 points with 11 rebounds and five blocks. The final score was deceptively close too, with the Buckeyes fighting back from a 22-point deficit near the start of the fourth quarter.
However, this year Ohio State boasts a reinforced interior game with transfer graduate forward Ajae Petty and freshman center Elsa Lemmilä. The problem with Petty is that Betts stands four inches taller than the former Kentucky big and while Lemmilä is 6-foot-6, she hasn’t faced a force like Betts in her first season of college basketball.
For interior defense to work, the Buckeyes need to try to stop the ball from even getting to Betts, which is easier said than done. Against Washington, Ohio State struggled inside the paint, allowing 30 points in the post from the Huskies, with many coming nearly unguarded.
It’s not only Betts, either — UCLA returns four of the five starters who faced Ohio State last season. The Bruins will play in mostly man coverage, with some zone to clog the paint, and play with three bigs with forwards Gabriela Jaquez and Angela Dugalic, who both still average 2.4 shots from deep per game.
On the perimeter is a dangerous tandem in Kiki Rice and Londynn Jones, a pair who will get open looks deep with Betts garnering so much attention. Rice, who played with Ohio State forward Cotie McMahon on youth Team USA sides over the summers of 22 and 23, is having a career year shooting, averaging 37.8 percent from beyond the arc and 56.7 percent overall, which is over 10 points higher than her sophomore season, while Jones leads the Bruins making two three-point shots per game.
Matchup-wise, Chance Gray and Jaloni Cambridge will play against Jones and Rice in the half court, and both bring strong defensive pressure but have to be aware of passes coming out of the post.
What will benefit the Buckeyes is getting the full court press established early. UCLA averages 15 turnovers per game — seventh-fewest in the conference — but Ohio State has experience increasing those averages for opponents.
If turnovers go the visitors’ way, it will turn easy baskets into offensive momentum, which the Buckeyes will need from McMahon especially.
Last season, McMahon scored seven points against the Bruins in Columbus, but that was before the forward worked on her perimeter shooting. McMahon was still relying heavily on attacks to the basket and trying to get contact, which is tough against a defender like Betts swatting shots away with ease.
While McMahon still takes opportunities of chances inside, the upperclassmen leader of the Buckeyes added a midrange turnaround jumper to her game and deep shooting. McMahon has 18 three point shots made this year, already eclipsing her career-high of 15 she hit as a freshman.
Both McMahon and forward Taylor Thierry have to be active on offense to keep up with the Bruins. Fortunately for Ohio State, all four players outside of the paint can hit a deep shot, but can they all do it consistently on the same night?
Ohio State has recent wins with starters scoring no points, like Gray against Maryland and Cambridge against Nebraska. That can’t happen if the Buckeyes want to pick up the biggest win of their season.
G- Jaloni Cambridge
G- Chance Gray
G- Taylor Thierry
F- Cotie McMahon
F- Ajae Petty
UCLA
G- Kiki Rice
G- Londynn Jones
F- Gabriela Jaquez
F- Angela Dugalic
C- Lauren Betts
Ohio State will come out of the gate with intensity and the two sides will battle back and forth for the first half. Eventually, the Bruins will breakdown the Buckeyes and pull away in the second half, despite an impressive performance by McMahon.
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025
Time: 9:30 p.m. ET
Where: Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, California
Stream: Peacock
On Monday, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association released their watch list for the Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Year award. The USBWA added two Buckeyes to the list with freshman guard Jaloni Cambridge and junior forward Cotie McMahon.
McMahon leads the Buckeyes with 16.5 points per game and Cambridge scores 14.6 points with 3.8 assists and 2.0 steals per game. Combined, the two have Ohio State in the conversation for a Big Ten regular season championship, despite losing three starters to expiring eligibility.
Continue reading...
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images
The Buckeyes and Bruins play for the second time in two seasons, but this time UCLA is the top team in the nation.
The old sports cliche of circling an opponent on the calendar when it gets released might be cheesy and overdone, but it’s hard to argue against teams doing it when they travel to Los Angeles for Big Ten women’s basketball. No. 8 Ohio State women’s basketball (20-1, 9-1) takes their trip west this week, starting with a matchup against the No. 1 UCLA Bruins (21-0, 9-0).
It’s a matchup where the Buckeyes enter as the underdogs, a rare place to be for the program so far in the 2024-25 season, but a quick look at the Bruins will show you that it's justified.
Both the Buckeyes and Bruins enter Wednesday night’s matchup near the top of the Big Ten. It’s a game featuring No. 1 and No. 2 in the conference, where a win for Ohio State puts them ahead of UCLA with seven games remaining. Lose and it’s a short turnaround time before facing the No. 7 USC Trojans on Saturday.
Preview
UCLA is the lone undefeated team in the country, despite going through injuries early in the season and head coach Cori Close needing to shift around her starting lineup to keep momentum going in Los Angeles.
In those 21 undefeated games, the Bruins beat four ranked opponents, although three of the four are no longer ranked. The lone standout victory was a big one, defeating the then-No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks to halt a 43-game winning streak for the defending national champions.
Leading the team is junior center Lauren Betts. The former Stanford recruit transferred south to UCLA where coach Close wasted no time getting the 6-foot-7 post presence on the court. Betts rewarded the program averaging 14.9 points and 9.3 rebounds per game in the Pac-12.
This year, Betts decided to get even better.
She has a stat line of 20.2 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.8 blocks per game. Each one a career high, but the most impressive and telling of the bunch is the assists. Last season, Betts averaged one assist per game, because the game plan was get the ball high to the only person who can reach it, then let them work.
Now, Betts still does that in bunches, but does so much more for this UCLA team. Betts now finds outlets when teams ultimately throw two or three defenders her way. To make matters worse for defenses, Betts also added better footwork and a mid-range game to her arsenal, so teams can’t camp under the rim anymore. If they do, Betts can use the open space in front to hit those short jumpers.
In the Bruins 79-53 win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Sunday, the big had a career-high 11 assists.
LB had a career-highdimes in yesterday’s win over Minnesota! She also surpassed Brittney Griner for the most assists by a player 6’7” or taller in the last 20 years! #GoBruins pic.twitter.com/8VvZJy1I68
— UCLA Women's Basketball (@UCLAWBB) February 3, 2025
Last season, when the Bruins defeated Ohio State 77-71 in Columbus, Betts scored 17 points with 11 rebounds and five blocks. The final score was deceptively close too, with the Buckeyes fighting back from a 22-point deficit near the start of the fourth quarter.
However, this year Ohio State boasts a reinforced interior game with transfer graduate forward Ajae Petty and freshman center Elsa Lemmilä. The problem with Petty is that Betts stands four inches taller than the former Kentucky big and while Lemmilä is 6-foot-6, she hasn’t faced a force like Betts in her first season of college basketball.
For interior defense to work, the Buckeyes need to try to stop the ball from even getting to Betts, which is easier said than done. Against Washington, Ohio State struggled inside the paint, allowing 30 points in the post from the Huskies, with many coming nearly unguarded.
It’s not only Betts, either — UCLA returns four of the five starters who faced Ohio State last season. The Bruins will play in mostly man coverage, with some zone to clog the paint, and play with three bigs with forwards Gabriela Jaquez and Angela Dugalic, who both still average 2.4 shots from deep per game.
On the perimeter is a dangerous tandem in Kiki Rice and Londynn Jones, a pair who will get open looks deep with Betts garnering so much attention. Rice, who played with Ohio State forward Cotie McMahon on youth Team USA sides over the summers of 22 and 23, is having a career year shooting, averaging 37.8 percent from beyond the arc and 56.7 percent overall, which is over 10 points higher than her sophomore season, while Jones leads the Bruins making two three-point shots per game.
Matchup-wise, Chance Gray and Jaloni Cambridge will play against Jones and Rice in the half court, and both bring strong defensive pressure but have to be aware of passes coming out of the post.
What will benefit the Buckeyes is getting the full court press established early. UCLA averages 15 turnovers per game — seventh-fewest in the conference — but Ohio State has experience increasing those averages for opponents.
If turnovers go the visitors’ way, it will turn easy baskets into offensive momentum, which the Buckeyes will need from McMahon especially.
Last season, McMahon scored seven points against the Bruins in Columbus, but that was before the forward worked on her perimeter shooting. McMahon was still relying heavily on attacks to the basket and trying to get contact, which is tough against a defender like Betts swatting shots away with ease.
While McMahon still takes opportunities of chances inside, the upperclassmen leader of the Buckeyes added a midrange turnaround jumper to her game and deep shooting. McMahon has 18 three point shots made this year, already eclipsing her career-high of 15 she hit as a freshman.
Both McMahon and forward Taylor Thierry have to be active on offense to keep up with the Bruins. Fortunately for Ohio State, all four players outside of the paint can hit a deep shot, but can they all do it consistently on the same night?
Ohio State has recent wins with starters scoring no points, like Gray against Maryland and Cambridge against Nebraska. That can’t happen if the Buckeyes want to pick up the biggest win of their season.
Projected Lineups
Ohio State
G- Jaloni Cambridge
G- Chance Gray
G- Taylor Thierry
F- Cotie McMahon
F- Ajae Petty
Lineup Notes
- Elsa Lemmilä averages 20 minutes in the past three games, with seven rebounds, 3.7 points and two blocks per game.
- Ohio State hasn’t lost a game in which Jaloni Cambridge played.
- The Buckeyes are ninth in the nation in steals with 274, averaging 13 per game.
UCLA
G- Kiki Rice
G- Londynn Jones
F- Gabriela Jaquez
F- Angela Dugalic
C- Lauren Betts
Lineup Notes
- Head coach Cori Close used 12 different lineups so far this season, but this group started the last six games.
- UCLA returns four of last year’s starting five that beat the Buckeyes in Columbus.
- Washington’s Devin Coppinger is the only freshman to log minutes this season for the Huskies.
Prediction
Ohio State will come out of the gate with intensity and the two sides will battle back and forth for the first half. Eventually, the Bruins will breakdown the Buckeyes and pull away in the second half, despite an impressive performance by McMahon.
How to Watch
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025
Time: 9:30 p.m. ET
Where: Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, California
Stream: Peacock
LGHL Score Prediction: 78-65, UCLA Bruins
USBWA Watchlist
On Monday, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association released their watch list for the Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Year award. The USBWA added two Buckeyes to the list with freshman guard Jaloni Cambridge and junior forward Cotie McMahon.
McMahon leads the Buckeyes with 16.5 points per game and Cambridge scores 14.6 points with 3.8 assists and 2.0 steals per game. Combined, the two have Ohio State in the conversation for a Big Ten regular season championship, despite losing three starters to expiring eligibility.
Continue reading...