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LGHL Big Ten Tournament Game Preview: No. 3 Ohio State vs. No. 11 Iowa

Big Ten Tournament Game Preview: No. 3 Ohio State vs. No. 11 Iowa
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch

Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Buckeyes and Hawkeyes renew their rivalry three weeks after an overtime thriller.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. It’s March and it’s college basketball. Friday night, Ohio State women’s basketball enters the postseason conference madness before the national March Madness tournament.

After earning the No. 3 tournament seed and a double-bye, Ohio State’s first game is against one of the hottest teams right now in college basketball. A team the Buckeyes have some drama with on and off the court over the past few years.

In the last quarterfinal game of the day, Ohio State takes on the Iowa Hawkeyes, hoping to forget last year’s quarterfinal upset and work towards securing home court for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

Preview​


To say Iowa is one of the hottest teams in the nation isn’t hyperbole. The Hawkeyes have eight wins in the last 10 games of the season after falling in five straight at the beginning of 2025. In that run, Iowa defeated the eventual Big Ten championship-winning USC Trojans, the lone tarnish on the Los Angeles side’s record in conference play.

Even the losses showed how the Hawkeyes are hitting their stride at the right time. The first came against the Buckeyes, in Columbus. Down 14 points with 1:38 remaining, the Black and Yellow, led by guard Lucy Olsen, forced overtime in a fast and hectic comeback.

Iowa lost, and they lost their next game too but that was a two-point defeat to the UCLA Bruins, in Iowa City.

So, suffice to say that Iowa is not a normal No. 11 seed.

On Thursday, the Hawkeyes beat the No. 24 ranked Michigan State Spartans, the No. 6 tournament seed. After losing to Sparty by two points in the regular season, the Hawkeyes went down four points after the first quarter but had a big response in the second quarter, out scoring Michigan State 20-9.

The Hawkeyes tried holding off Michigan State in the third quarter, but the Spartans are known for late comebacks themselves and took a short-lived five-point lead. Iowa scored eight to finish the third quarter and then scored 20 in the fourth quarter to pull away to a 74-61 victory.

Head coach Jan Jensen, in her first year running the Iowa program, saw her side through a rough spell earlier in the season, a spell due to forward Hannah Stuelke moving from a No. 5 position to a power forward. The Hawkeyes never truly adjusted and Jansen had the wherewithal to go back to what worked, and it’s working.

Stuelke is an offensive weapon who will hurt teams inside the post, even if she’s not scoring baskets consistently. The space she takes, and defenders she pulls in, benefits those on the outside.

Olsen is the main benefactor with a 23.1 points per game average in the last eight games and shooting 50 percent from beyond the arc in that stretch with 23 made three-point shots.

Syndication: The Indianapolis Star
Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In Columbus, Ohio State built a lead thanks to strong play against Stuelke. The Buckeyes held Stuelke to 10 points and five rebounds, with freshman center Elsa Lemmilä picking up three blocks against the junior forward. Olsen scored 27 and guard Sydney Affolter was relentless on the boards with 15 rebounds.

Since then, rebounding for the Buckeyes has improved through the play of forward Ajae Petty. The graduate forward has three double-doubles in a row after going 10 games where Petty didn’t even reach double-digit points or rebounds.

“My process never changed even when things were going kind of rough,” said Petty about coming out of the cold spell. “Sometimes you gotta accept the place that God places you in. You just gotta continue to keep grinding it out. So sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s the beauty of the game.”

It’s working for Ohio State now but they also need more minutes out of Jaloni Cambridge.

Against Maryland, the guard played 18 minutes due to foul trouble and fouled out in the fourth quarter. Head coach Kevin McGuff said it boils down to Cambridge being hard working player who wants to get into every play. McGuff and Cambridge talked about being careful with her hands and being selective on when to get into a play.

“We need her,” said McGuff. “We need her on the floor.”

Cambridge led Ohio State with 29 points against the Hawkeyes and should come into Friday with a little more motivation considering her being unavailable when the team needed her against the Terrapins. Both her and McMahon are a focal point for coach Jansen and the Hawkeyes.

“Man, Jaloni [Cambridge], I’ll tell you what, she’s tremendous,” said Jansen following Iowa’s Thursday night win. “Cotie McMahon, tremendous. All of them, man, they’re just really explosive, they’re powerful, they press.”

“We have to handle their press. We have to handle their speed,” said Jansen. “Jaloni got downhill on us real fast, real often there, and I don’t know if anybody’s been able to really slow her down.”

Even with applause from the opposing coach, Ohio State isn’t at a the point where they have played a full 40 minutes of their desired style of basketball. To avoid a second consecutive upset in the Big Ten Tournament, the Buckeyes will need more against the Hawkeyes.

Projected Starters ​

Ohio State​


G- Jaloni Cambridge
G- Chance Gray
G- Taylor Thierry
F- Cotie McMahon
F- Ajae Petty

Lineup Notes​

  • Ohio State has 15 games this season where four players reached double-digit scoring in the same game.
  • Ajae Petty has three double-doubles in a row, which is the first OHio State player to do that since forward Dorka Juhász in the 20-21 season.
  • The Buckeyes have at least 10 steals in 23 games this season.

Iowa​


G- Sydney Affolter
G- Kylie Feuerbach
G- Taylor McCabe
G- Lucy Olsen
F- Hannah Stuelke

Lineup Notes​

  • This Iowa starting lineup has a 9-3 record this season and have started together for the last 11 games in a row.
  • Hannah Stuelke only played 22 minutes due to foul trouble against Michigan State on Thursday night but still had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
  • Lucy Olsen earned a unanimous All-Big Ten First Team selection by the coaches, with a First Team honor from the media. Stuelke landed on the media’s Second Team but not the coaches.

Prediction​


This game is going to be close. What will get Ohio State over the Hawkeyes is the motivated play of forward Cotie McMahon and freshman Jaloni Cambridge. The two will lead the Buckeye scoring, and Ohio State will force turnovers from the Iowa side.

It will be a loud, pro-Iowa, crowd. The Hawkeye faithful are already in Indianapolis and more will descend as the tournament moves on with Iowa taking part. That will make it a tough environment to play in and give the Hawkeyes a boost.

How to Watch ​


Date: Friday, March. 7, 2025
Time: 9:00 p.m. ET
Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
TV: Big Ten Network
Stream: FOX Sports App

LGHL Score Prediction: 78-77, Ohio State Buckeyes​

Caitlin Clark is in the building​


Just when you thought it was safe to watch Big Ten women’s basketball, Iowa guard Caitlin Clark has returned. This time the guard is a spectator, watching the side she led to the last three Big Ten Tournament championships.

Playing in the same arena for the Indiana Fever of the WNBA, Clark watched both Wednesday’s game against the Wisconsin Badgers and the win over Sparty on Thursday.

Syndication: The Indianapolis Star
Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

That means that the guard will more than likely be court side on Friday, adding a little bit of intrigue for an Ohio State side that has their fair share of history with the former Hawkeye star.

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Ohio State at Indiana, Saturday, March 8, 2025, 3:45 PM on CBS

ScriptOhio
From the Hoosier perspective:

www.insidethehall.com

What to Expect: Indiana vs. Ohio State

Indiana concludes the regular season Saturday afternoon against Ohio State at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
www.insidethehall.com www.insidethehall.com

What to Expect: Indiana vs. Ohio State​

IUBB-OSU-1-17-25-21-800x534.jpg


Indiana concludes the regular season Saturday afternoon against Ohio State at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The Buckeyes are 17-13 and 9-10 in the Big Ten.

Indiana won the first meeting 77-76 in overtime on Jan. 17 in Columbus.

Saturday’s game will tip at 3:45 p.m. ET on CBS:

Two teams desperately needing a win will meet on Saturday in Bloomington. The Hoosiers and Buckeyes are squarely on the bubble with the Big Ten tournament and Selection Sunday looming.

Indiana is coming off a hard-fought 73-64 loss at Oregon, which snapped its three-game winning streak. Ohio State survived a double overtime thriller on Tuesday in Columbus against Nebraska, another bubble team.

The winner will feel good about its NCAA tournament chances, while the loser will leave with work to do in Indianapolis next week to secure a bid.

THE FIRST MATCHUP
Indiana’s narrow win against the Buckeyes in Columbus was one of its better performances of the season. The Hoosiers responded to back-to-back 25-point losses against Iowa and Illinois with better energy from the opening tip.

Indiana nearly collapsed after it built a 68-58 lead with 5:12 to play. The Hoosiers were outscored 13-3 to finish regulation and fell behind in overtime before outlasting the Buckeyes.

Senior wing Luke Goode had a career night at Value City Arena. The Illinois transfer poured in a career-high 23 points and shot 7-for-14 from the field, including a 4-for-7 mark on 3s. His fourth 3-pointer of the game, with just over a minute left in overtime, proved to be the game-winner.

With Malik Reneau sidelined with a knee injury, Indiana emphasized Oumar Ballo in the post early and often. The 7-footer scored 21 points on 8-for-14 shooting from the field and a 5-for-7 mark from the foul line. Ballo also pulled down 15 rebounds and eight of them were on the offensive end. Ballo played 40 minutes and also had three assists, two blocked shots and a steal.

The Hoosiers also got a key performance from Kanaan Carlyle off the bench. Carlyle, who played well in Tuesday’s loss at Oregon, logged 36 minutes against the Buckeyes. He had 13 points on 5-for-12 shooting and didn’t commit a turnover. Carlyle scored 10 of his 13 points after halftime.

For Ohio State, all three of its backcourt players had big games. Freshman John Mobley scored a team-high 22 points and hit several big shots from the perimeter. Mobley was 5-for-11 on 3s and is shooting 40.2 percent on triples.

Indiana also had trouble defending San Diego State transfer Micah Parrish. The 6-foot-6 wing had 19 points and was disruptive defensively (three steals). Junior point guard Bruce Thornton also played well despite a rough shooting night from distance. Thornton was 6-for-9 on 2s and finished with 18 points, six rebounds and three assists in 43 minutes.

Both teams were missing key pieces in the first meeting. Reneau was unavailable for Indiana and the Buckeyes were without forward Devin Royal, who averages 13.6 points, seven rebounds and 1.1 assists in 28.3 minutes per game. The 6-foot-6 Royal shoots 52.5 from the field and is a versatile scoring threat.

TEMPO-FREE PREVIEW​

(All stats are for conference games only and conference rankings in parenthesis are updated through Wednesday’s games.)

tfsohiostate.jpg


Ohio State is an above-average 3-point shooting team that also gets to the line and converts its opportunities. The Buckeyes shoot 35.2 percent from deep in Big Ten games and score 30.5 percent of its points from 3, which is middle of the pack in the conference and nationally.

The Buckeyes have the fifth-best free throw rate (FTA/FGA) in the league and are shooting 78.4 percent from the stripe, which ranks third in the conference. Thornton shoots 84.1 percent, Mobley 88 percent, Royal 78.2 percent and Parrish 79.1 percent from the stripe.

Defensively, the Buckeyes have two key issues. Ohio State is 14th in the Big Ten in defensive rebounding percentage and last in opponent free throw rate. Indiana had 14 offensive rebounds and went 17-for-23 from the line in Columbus.

WHAT IT COMES DOWN TO​

The KenPom projection is Indiana by one with a 54 percent chance of a Hoosier victory. Bart Torvik’s ratings favor Indiana by two with a 57 percent chance for the Hoosiers to prevail.

Indiana should have one of its liveliest crowds of the season. It’s senior day in Bloomington and the Hoosiers can take another step towards an NCAA tournament berth with a win. While not an elimination game for either team with the Big Ten tournament looming, the winner will have far less pressure going to Indianapolis and will also avoid a Wednesday game.

The Hoosiers are playing arguably their best basketball of the season at the right time. Indiana won three straight games before Tuesday’s loss at Oregon. The final score of that contest was not indicative of how close the game was as IU led in the final two minutes before it had to foul, which allowed Oregon to stretch the lead.

The keys for Indiana are dominating the paint, converting opportunities at the line and not allowing the trio of Thornton, Mobley and Parrish to get in rhythm offensively.
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LGHL Ohio State women’s basketball remains optimistic entering postseason play

Ohio State women’s basketball remains optimistic entering postseason play
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Ohio State v Maryland

Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images

Despite losing in College Park, the overtime defeat gives the team hope heading into a Friday Big Ten Tournament debut

Last season, Ohio State women’s basketball was on a tear. The Buckeyes won 15 games in a row in conference play, securing the sole ownership of the Big Ten regular season title, setting up what the team hoped was a longer postseason than their trip to the Elite Eight in 2023. Then the wheels fell off.

Head coach Kevin McGuff’s side went to Iowa to face guard Caitlin Clark in her last regular season game in Iowa City. In a contest full of emotion and national attention, Clark secured the NCAA points record from Pete Maravich and the Buckeyes couldn’t overcome the Black and Yellow. A small blip before the postseason, but it proved to be just the first impact that turned into a fast-growing crack in the foundation — then the Maryland Terrapins punched a hole in it.

In the Big Ten Tournament, Ohio State entered as the No. 1 seed, and came in with a track record of not losing in the quarterfinals when entering with a double-bye under McGuff.

However, the Terrapins beat the Buckeyes by 21 points and Ohio State hopped right back on the plane home from Minneapolis, Minnesota to try and regroup for the NCAA Tournament. The Buckeyes beat the Maine Black Bears, needing to rebound from a tough start, and then couldn’t hold off the Duke Blue Devils in the Second Round of March Madness.

That’s all in the past, but Ohio State stands on the precipice of another March, beginning Friday at the Big Ten Tournament. However, this time things are different.

For one, the team integrated three new starters in the offseason. It’s taken time to get players used to each other, and key leaders from past campaigns are now either in the pros, on the Ohio State bench or both.

Then there’s the second difference - the Buckeyes haven’t been on a tear at all this season. Ohio State won 17 games to start the season, but that was a weak non-conference schedule masquerading as a tear.

Ohio State has been pushed and pulled to this point of the season through strong individual performances from forward Cotie McMahon and freshman point guard Jaloni Cambridge. Any tough win was either the by-product of a player reaching new levels of competing or opponents wrestling away leads. There have not been many team battles to overcome adversity, until the final day of the regular season.

The Buckeyes lost in overtime to the Maryland Terrapins 93-90 on a last second overtime three-point winner by Terps guard Sarah Te-Biasu, but that defeat puts Ohio State in a better spot for the postseason, much better than last season.

Against Maryland, Ohio State lacked lineup consistency with McMahon and Cambridge each sitting on the bench for periods of time they would normally be playing due to foul trouble. In the second half, down nine points, it looked like the Buckeyes were on their way to a humbling defeat but a weird thing happened and Ohio State fought and clawed back into the game.

“I was proud of the team, the way we competed,” said McGuff. “I thought our competitive character and effort was where it needed to be.”

McGuff isn’t one who believes a loss is a good way to learn lessons, sharing in the past that winning also lets teams learn lessons, so the positives of how the team competed were followed up with a “but.”

“But we made too many mistakes. A lot of turnovers that led to easy Maryland baskets and a couple opportunities for key defensive stops that we didn’t get.”

Last season, the Buckeyes looked like a team that knew they could win, but the confidence got the best of them at the end of the season and in the postseason. This edition of the Scarlet and Gray doesn’t have that same belief. When the team did, specifically against the Penn State Nittany Lions, it ended in defeat. Penn State entered that game without a Big Ten win on the season and ended the regular season on Sunday with only that one win in conference play.

Not having that kind of confidence is a good thing.

Ohio State can’t afford to expect a win to come to them. There needs to be that fight that the Buckeyes showed without their top scorers on the floor in an environment that goes beyond a normal college basketball game in the Big Ten. Not only were the coaches yelling, but the fans and players joined in. The officiating crew was struggling to keep up with the intensity on and off the court.

Despite the loss, it has the Buckeyes feeling better about heading into the postseason.

“It shows our togetherness, our toughness,” said graduate senior guard Madison Greene. It gives us confidence even if we didn’t have a great outcome today, coming into the Big Ten Tournament and March, I think if we have that same mindset and energy I think we’ll be good.”

Greene was part of the group leading that comeback charge, playing 33 minutes, which is her most in a game coming off the bench. In large part due to Cambridge only playing 18 minutes before fouling out. Greene added 12 points, her highest total in Big Ten play this season in a subdued role.

The Buckeyes also leaned on the play of guard Taylor Thierry, who played 43 minutes and led all Ohio State scorers with 21 points. A performance unlike Thierry this year after the senior took a more backseat role in the offense.

While the cast of characters is different, the show is the same for Ohio State, and they are playing more like the 22-23 edition of this program. That team had to battle to come back in multiple games. That team didn’t lack fight. For any tough, lopsided, defeat there were two-to-three double-digit comebacks.

This season’s edition of the Buckeyes has the talent and it’s proven that throughout the season. Outside of McMahon and Cambridge, guard Chance Gray has games hitting deep shots with frequency, forward Ajae Petty is on a three-game double-double streak and bench players like Kennedy Cambridge and Elsa Lemmila provide sparks nearly every game.

How will that transfer to the postseason where each game could be the team’s last?

“I think we’re in a good spot,” said McGuff. “Today we could’ve won, we didn’t, and give Maryland credit, they made some big plays down the stretch especially. But we’ve played well the last three games against really good competition and so I think we’re in a pretty good spot.”

Ohio State has wins against ranked Michigan State and an overtime victory over a surging Iowa Hawkeyes team that has three wins in their last four games, plus a narrow, two-point, defeat to the UCLA Bruins. It bodes well for the Buckeyes and shows that despite an up and down season, not all hope is lost for the Scarlet and Gray.

“We’ve got to take that same competitive character into next weekend in Indy” said McGuff. “Just be a little bit better in controlling the things we can control and we’ll be a bit better.”

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LGHL McGuff on McMahon controversy, closing the book on overblown public response

McGuff on McMahon controversy, closing the book on overblown public response
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Ohio State v Maryland

Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images

Ohio State moves on from the middle fingers momentarily taking over the Cotie McMahon search engine results.

Put the name “Cotie McMahon” in a search engine over the past three years and a number of highlight plays, shows of pure emotion and accolades popped up. On Monday, those shifted to a different kind of result with opportunistic news outlets looking for clicks “reporting” on the middle fingers given by the junior forward to the Maryland Terrapins’ student section in Sunday’s 93-90 Buckeyes loss.

Look past the obvious intentions of outlets like Fox News writing an article about a successful black woman in a moment of frustration and the moment fit into a game that had tension on both sides, a technical foul and an environment in College Park that sounded like a powder keg about to explode.

On Thursday, one day before Ohio State women’s basketball heads to Indianapolis to play in the annual Big Ten Tournament, head coach Kevin McGuff addressed the situation.

Here is coach McGuff’s full statement:

“Good to have everybody here. It’s good to see you guys. And just real quickly, we obviously took a tough loss against Marilyn on Sunday. And we had an unfortunate incident with Cotie [McMahon] where she kind of lost control of her emotions there for a moment and did something out of character for her. And we are addressing that internally with her.”

While opposing fans and people with their own heinous motivation for going after McMahon are likely on the side of punishing the junior, McGuff followed that up with confirmation that the team, the Big Ten and the NCAA are not taking the situation any further, which is the right thing to do.

Look further into the game, the moment, and the response and it is not something that would normally garner the same attention if it were in the pro ranks, or even if it happened elsewhere in college sports. Ohio State has history, with former football player Marcus Hall showing the middle finger to Michigan fans in 2013, resulting in a reprimand from the conference but nothing additional.

Emotion is part of the sport, and McMahon shows more than most. Over the years, McGuff is known for his fair share of jokes at McMahon’s personality that is beloved by fans and grates opposing fans, but McGuff continued on Thursday talking about how that emotion isn’t a detriment — it is a benefit.

“We talk to her, we talk to all of our players,” said McGuff. “When she’s got really positive emotion going in the right direction, it really drags the whole team with her. Her being mindful of that, and that energy is really powerful and we want to use it in a positive way and it’s extremely impactful for us.”

Now it’s time to go back to the reality that much worse things have happened in a basketball game than a player sending their thoughts back to a college basketball crowd, and now spend time watching great basketball.

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Google Ohio State Point Guard Commit Marcus Johnson Has “Wonderful” Relationship with Buckeyes’ Coaches As He Chases State Championship - Eleven Warriors

Ohio State Point Guard Commit Marcus Johnson Has “Wonderful” Relationship with Buckeyes’ Coaches As He Chases State Championship - Eleven Warriors
via Google News using key phrase "Buckeyes".

Ohio State Point Guard Commit Marcus Johnson Has “Wonderful” Relationship with Buckeyes’ Coaches As He Chases State Championship Eleven Warriors

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LGHL Ohio State’s men’s and women’s hockey compete in conference tournament action this weekend

Ohio State’s men’s and women’s hockey compete in conference tournament action this weekend
Brett Ludwiczak via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch

Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The women’s team will look to win the WCHA Final Faceoff, while the men’s team opens up Big Ten Tournament play.

While the eyes of the hockey world were on the Columbus Blue Jackets over the weekend because of the NHL’s Stadium Series game, both Ohio State hockey teams had notable weekend series.

The Buckeye men’s team closed out their regular season schedule by splitting a series with the Michigan Wolverines. The women’s team had little trouble with St. Thomas in the first round of the WCHA Tournament, securing a spot in the WCHA Final Faceoff this weekend.

Now both squads will look to add to their resumés to bolster their seeding for their upcoming NCAA Tournament runs.

Women’s hockey​


We’ll start off with the Ohio State women’s hockey team, since they will be wrapping up their conference tournament, while the men’s team will just be starting the Big Ten Tournament this weekend.

Nadine Muzerall’s squad swept St. Thomas in Columbus over the weekend, beating the Tommies 5-1 on Friday, followed by a 4-1 win on Saturday. With the victories, the Buckeyes will now face Minnesota on Friday afternoon in a WCHA Final Faceoff semifinal.

Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch
Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Joy Dunne opened up the scoring for Ohio State 1:31 into the game on Friday night. Dunne also scored the first goal of Saturday’s game at the 1:36 mark of the first period. With goals in both games, Dunne has now put a puck in the back of the net in each of the last six games. The Buckeye star also added three assists over the two games, increasing her team-high point total to 52 points on the season. The 23 goals Dunne has scored is just two shy of tying Jocelyn Amos for the team lead.

The star of Friday night’s game was undoubtedly Mira Jungåker, who scored two goals and dished out two assists in the 5-1 win over St. Thomas. The freshman defenseman from Sweden also had an assist in Saturday’s victory. After a slow start to the season, it is obvious that Jungåker is gaining comfort on the ice and could be a big factor for the Buckeyes the rest of the season.

Winning both games for Ohio State over the weekend was goaltender Amanda Thiele, who continues to add to her impressive Buckeye career between the pipes. Thiele is now 18-5-2 on the season, giving her 69 career wins as an Ohio State goaltender. Although Hailey MacLeod has seen a decent amount of time at goalie for the Buckeyes, expect to see Thiele the rest of the way because of her tremendous amount of experience in high pressure postseason games.

Now Ohio State will take on a Minnesota team who they defeated in three of their four meetings during the regular season. The Buckeyes won the first game between the teams 4-3 on October 11th in Columbus, followed by a shootout win the next night.

The Golden Gophers and Buckeyes would meet in Minneapolis a few months later. Minnesota’s 3-1 win on Jan. 31 would be their only one over Ohio State so far this season, but the Buckeyes did earn some revenge the next day with a 7-3 triumph. The most notable performance in those games was in the final matchup when Sloane Matthews recorded a hat trick to lead Ohio State to victory.

The Golden Gophers enter Friday’s semifinal with a 27-10-1 record after winning two of three games over Minnesota State over the weekend. Minnesota won the first game 6-1 but Minnesota State was able to avoid the sweep by winning the second game 5-4 in double overtime. The Golden Gophers righted the ship in Sunday’s game, winning 6-2. Emma Kreisz had two goals and three assists to lead the way in game one, while Abbey Murphy netted two goals in game three.

There’s no question that Abbey Murphy is the star for Minnesota after she has recorded 29 goals and 30 assists so far this season. The only other Golden Gopher skater with more than 40 points is Ella Huber, who has 44 points on the season. Peyton Hemp and Natalie Mlynkova each have been credited with 31 points.

In goal, Hannah Clark has done the bulk of the work this season, starting 32 games, posting a 23-8-1 record with a 2.25 goals against average and .907 save percentage.

The winner of Friday’s second semifinal will go on to face the winner of the game between Wisconsin and Minnesota-Duluth that will be played first on Friday. The final will take place on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. ET. All games from the WCHA Final Faceoff can be seen on B1G+.

Men’s hockey​


When it comes to Ohio State’s men’s hockey team, the Buckeyes already had clinched a top-three spot in the Big Ten standings heading into last weekend’s action, ensuring they would play at home in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Even though the pressure was off when it came to having an edge in the first round, Ohio State still wanted to best their rival when the Michigan Wolverines came to Columbus for two games last week.

Ohio State opened up the two-game series with a 2-1 overtime victory over the Wolverines before Michigan was able to win Friday night’s game 4-3. William Smith scored the game-winner 1:22 in overtime on Thursday to earn the win for the Buckeyes. Friday night’s game saw Michigan jump out to a 4-1 lead.

While Ohio State showed fight with two goals in the third period, they weren’t able to complete the comeback and send the game into overtime.

Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch
Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

With how the last weekend of the Big Ten regular season shook out, the Buckeyes will host Wisconsin in a best-of-three series this weekend at Nationwide Arena. Ohio State swept all four meetings with the Badgers this season, winning 2-1 in overtime and 2-1 in regulation in Madison back in October, followed by 4-1 and 4-2 wins in Columbus last month. Wisconsin enters this weekend’s games with a 12-19-3 record on the season.

Max Montes was a force in the games in Madison, scoring both goals in the overtime win in the first meeting between the schools. Riley Thompson would score 21 seconds into the second game, while Montes added some insurance with a goal a minute into the third to win the next night. Thompson would go on to score two goals in the first game in Columbus, and Montes would tie the final meeting of the regular season in the second period before Damien Carfagna and Davis Burnside netted goals to complete the regular season sweep of the Badgers.

Ohio State can’t take Wisconsin lightly because anything can happen on the ice. While Ohio State has Gunnerwolfe Fontaine, Riley Thompson, and Davis Burnside as 30-point scores this season, the Badgers counter with Quinn Finley, Ryland Mosley, and Gavin Morrissey. At goaltender, Tommy Scarfone can be tough to get pucks past, posting a 2.64 goals against average and three shutouts this season.

All of this weekend’s games between Ohio State and Wisconsin are scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m. ET, and can be seen on B1G+. The winner will move on to the next round of the Big Ten Tournament, with their opponent depending on how the rest of the action around the conference over the weekend shakes out.

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LGHL Uncut: Jake Diebler discusses ridiculous double overtime win over Nebraska

Uncut: Jake Diebler discusses ridiculous double overtime win over Nebraska
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch

Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Buckeyes blew a lead, then came back in dramatic fashion.

Throughout the season, Land-Grant will be bringing you uncut audio primarily from Ohio State press conferences but also from individual interview sessions.

Listen to the episode and subscribe: ​


Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio


In the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 5, Jake Diebler spoke to the collective Ohio State and Nebraska media contingent about the game, how proud he was of his team, and what it was like on the sideline on every final possession.

Micah Parrish and Bruce Thornton spoke briefly as well, giving big grins when the NCAA Tournament came up. Parrish said this was the wildest game he’s played in since transferring to Ohio State.

Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg also spoke, saying Ohio State has a “great roster” and that the coaching staff does a great job running designed actions for all five starters.


Connect with Connor:
Twitter: @lemons_connor

Theme music provided by www.bensound.com​


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