Lady Basketball Buckeyes Tidbits 2005-2006 Season

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

2/7/06

OSU gets busy preparing for postseason mind-set

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Jim Massie
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH




At first glance, a game against a non-Big Ten team in the middle of a hot conference race has the odd look of a weed sprouting from a crack in an asphalt driveway. It doesn’t belong there.
Ohio State coach Jim Foster takes a different view. He is pleased that his seventh-ranked Buckeyes (18-2) will play Wright State (10-12) tonight in Value City Arena.
The Raiders were runnersup to Wisconsin-Green Bay in the Pioneer League tournament last season and just missed an NCAA Tournament berth. A team like this one figures to be waiting for the Buckeyes in March.
"I’m sure this is a good game for them in the middle of their conference season to get out of that routine," said Foster, who said he likes the idea of having one day to prepare for the game. "That is what the NCAA Tournament is. You play somebody, prepare and play somebody. This is a great opportunity to get into that mind-set this week."
This is busy week for the Buckeyes. They travel to Ann Arbor for a Big Ten game against Michigan at 7 p.m. Friday, then return to play Iowa at 5 p.m. Sunday in another conference game.
The whirlwind happens as the team appears to be hitting its stride. It has a ninegame winning streak, and junior center Jessica Davenport won her third conference player of the week award yesterday after hitting 10 of 11 shots from the field and scoring 23 points in a 61-45 win over Indiana on Sunday.
Davenport doesn’t mind the busy schedule, because she thinks the team is improving each game.
In the Indiana win, the offense found ways to score at critical times when she was double- and triple-teamed. The defense looked similarly efficient while limiting the duo of Cyndi Valentin and Jenny De-Muth to a combined 13 points.
"I’ve seen a lot of our players just go out and play their game and not just trying to focus on passing me the ball," Davenport said. "They’re able to score and they’re able to play against great defensive teams like that.
"I think our communication is getting a lot better. That’s helping to lead to defensive stops. We can focus on a couple of players that we don’t want to get started offensively."
The Raiders are hoping to surprise the Buckeyes. Davenport doubts that will happen.
"I’m sure whatever Wright State throws at us, we’ll be prepared for it," she said.
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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

scout.com (free)

2/8/06

Game wrap-up of the win over Wright State.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

2/8/06

NO. 7 OHIO STATE 79 | WRIGHT STATE 48

Thanks to suffocating ‘D’, Buckeyes can breathe easy
OSU pulls away late, uses game as tournament preview

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Jim Massie
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

MIKE MUNDEN | DISPATCH Wright State’s Alicia Avery, left, blocks a shot attempt by Ohio State’s Jessica Davenport, who still finished with 18 points.

MIKE MUNDEN | DISPATCH Brandie Hoskins of Ohio State puts up a shot against Tyanda Hammock of Wright State.


At a midweek gathering with the media, the topic turned to defense and Ohio State coach Jim Foster pointed out that in 28 years his teams had yet to "pitch a shutout."
For 11 minutes, 1 second last night in Value City Arena, the seventh-ranked Buckeyes (19-2) did a fair impression of Roger Clemens while pumping fast breaks past Wright State during a 79-48 victory.
The Raiders (10-13) spent the first 29 minutes putting a few dents in a proud OSU defense that entered the game second in the nation in points allowed.
Wright State closed to 53-45 on the fourth three-point basket by Rhea Mays and had the crowd of 3,330 wondering whether the home team could be in trouble. But OSU answered emphatically with a blistering 26-3 run to wrap up its 10 th consecutive victory.
"It was kind of like a reality check that you have to wake up on defense and you’ve got to start playing aggressively," Buckeyes guard Kim Wilburn said. "We switched things around, and that worked for us."
The tempo change didn’t surprise Wright State coach Bridgett Williams.
"They’re a great program," she said of OSU. "You’re just kind of waiting for that to happen the entire game. It was just a matter of time before they took over in that regard. We had their backs to the wall, and I think that’s when they came out after that (Mays’ threepointer)."
The smothering defense led to multiple transition opportunities for the Buckeyes, who thrived in the open court. Brandie Hoskins led the offense with 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and closed to four points of 1,000 for her career.
Jessica Davenport finished with 18 points, and Wilburn added 10 points and six steals. Ashley Allen had six assists against no turnovers. All 12 players on the roster contributed to the win.
"When you play 12 players and the ball is shared as well as it was and moved as well as it was and players are as unselfish as they were, that speaks volumes for them," Foster said.
Foster noted that Hoskins is growing accustomed to playing with the prescription goggles she began sporting seven games ago.
"As a result, she is starting to play better," he said. "That’s not an easy adjustment to go through. She’s doing a much better job playing at a great tempo and adding a couple of things that we like. The spin is something she used today in the open floor and finished with her left hand."
Hoskins agreed that she and the goggles are co-existing better, but a couple of problems remain.
"They fog up a lot," she said. "And just having something on me. I hate playing with stuff on me. I hate stuff touching me when I’m playing. I used to wear them when I was younger, but it’s still hard when they fog up. They make me feel like Horace Grant."
Hoskins enjoyed the rapid pace of the game and said the spin move Foster complimented came out of practice.
"Coach Foster has been making me work on it in practice," she said. "A lot of times in practice with Tia (Battle) guarding me, I have to go to my left. So it helps me work on moves to my left." Mays led Wright State with 14 points. Brittney Whiteside, a Mifflin High School graduate, scored seven points and topped 1,000 points for her career.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Link

2/9/06

PG WEST: McDonald's picks WA center Walker as all-star nominee

Thursday, February 09, 2006
By David Assad, Tri-State Sports & News Service




West Allegheny senior Andrea Walker is headed for Ohio State on a basketball scholarship, which appeared to be an unlikely proposition three years ago when she entered high school as a seldom-used player for the Indians varsity.
Walker, a 6-foot-4 center, has really stepped up her game in recent years, however, to develop into one of the top talents in the WPIAL.
She was recently nominated for the 2006 McDonald's All-American High School team. If selected, Walker would play in the March 31 game at San Diego State University's Cox Arena.
Walker is averaging 17.6 points, 10 rebounds, five blocked shots, two assists and two steals per game. She signed a letter-of-intent with the Buckeyes program during the scholarship signing period last November.
"Her freshman year, she played sporadically," West Allegheny coach Beth Bayly said. "She was about 6-1 her freshman year so she's grown her last couple years. Ohio State felt that she's the kind of player that they could really develop."
Despite her stellar numbers in her senior season, it has not been quite good enough to get West Allegheny into the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs. The Indians (11-11, 5-8) were eliminated from playoff contention Monday after a 50-41 loss at Beaver Area. Walker was held to 11 points, due in part to foul trouble.
"She's physically strong on the inside," Bayly said. "Her younger years of high school she was just immature. The seriousness [toward basketball] wasn't there yet. This year, she is finally realizing how much her team relies on her and what her capabilities are. She's really focused this year and has worked really hard on her own game to help the rest of her team."
Walker has played AAU basketball in recent summers for the Rockers, an all-star caliber team of current WPIAL seniors. The team usually practiced at LaRoche College or Duquesne University. Some of her teammates last summer included Nikki Presto of Thomas Jefferson and Amy Johns of McKeesport, both high-scoring guards. Walker has been primarily used as a post player, which is where she is expected to contribute at Ohio State, one of the top programs in the Big Ten every season.
"She's an unselfish kind of player," Bayly said. "She's very good at passing to help break the press... And being 6-4, that's a given [when it comes to college recruiting interest]. That's something you can't coach. A lot of times when you are that big, you can't run. But she gets up and down the floor well and has nice hands. She catches just about everything that's thrown around her."
Last summer, Walker's AAU team competed in several high-profile tournaments nationally.
"I knew I had to keep working hard to get to the next level," Walker said. "I had to do a lot to improve my game to reach that level for a program like Ohio State that has really high standards."
She has 1,099 career points, the fifth player in West Allegheny girls' basketball history to surpass the 1,000-point plateau. She passed the 1,000-point mark when she scored 18 against Ambridge Jan. 23 when the Indians topped the host Bridgers, 42-34. Her younger sister, 6-1 freshman Michelle Walker, also scored 18 points that evening.
Andrea Walker also scored 27 points with 13 rebounds and four blocked shots to lead West Allegheny to a 64-55 win at home against Blackhawk last Thursday to avenge an overtime loss to the Cougars earlier in the season. Junior guard Tiffany Medwid also scored 20 points during the victory. The win over Blackhawk temporarily kept the Indians in the playoff race.
"She did what she needed to do to win that game for us," Bayly said. "We got some help from our guards, but she just dominated inside. She's faced a lot of double-teaming and physically gets beat up around the boards every game because there are always two or three people around her.
"She's done a good job of knowing when to throw the ball and when not to throw the ball. Sometimes, she'll relocate and come away from the hoop and she's starting to take the ball to the hoop, facing the basket more. She'll shoot those little jumpers inside of the paint which helps her [as a post-up player]."
"I don't let the double- and triple-teaming get to me," Walker said.
"It was exciting to beat Blackhawk. I got into foul trouble against them, so I didn't try to do anything risky. I knew I had to keep playing smart. The guards were making a lot of nice passes to me and they were really being smart with the ball and everything just came together."
Walker is looking forward to her career at Ohio State. "I'm excited about the opportunity there, but I know I'm going to have to work a lot harder when I get there," she said.HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS' BASKETBALL

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

2/10/06

OSU transfer can’t play yet, but she’s in the game

Friday, February 10, 2006

Jim Massie
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH




The clock in the car had moved past midnight and the traffic around Champaign, Ill., was light enough to leave Ohio State assistant coach Debbie Black alone with her thoughts.
The cell phone call caught her by surprise and the number didn’t immediately register.
"I’m thinking, ‘Who can this be?’ " said Black, who was driving home from a recruiting trip. "It was Ashlee Trebilcock. She was calling to tell me that Iowa had beaten Purdue."
More than five weeks after transferring to OSU from UCLA, Trebilcock feels at home with the seventh-ranked Buckeyes. The freshman point guard has been practicing for a month and is engrossed in the Big Ten race even though she won’t be eligible to play in a game until next season.
"I still feel like I’m a part of the team," Trebilcock said. "If they win, then it’s a big win for all of us and I feel part of that. And if there’s an upset or something happens in the league that’s a big deal, then I’m really excited about it."
The loss by the Big Ten-leading Boilermakers fit into the big-deal category.
"What happened was, me and my mom were sitting on the couch watching ESPN," Trebilcock said. "The bottom ticker said Purdue had lost by six to Iowa. I went online and made sure. I was like, ‘I’ve got to call somebody. Who’s up? Coach Black is definitely up. She’s always up.’ "
As a midseason transfer, Trebilcock in ineligible to go to road games. When the Buckeyes (19-2, 9-1) play at last-place Michigan (6-17, 0-11) at 7 tonight, she will try to find the game on television or online and wait for postgame calls from teammates and coaches.
Coach Jim Foster is pleased with how quickly Trebilcock has fit into the program.
"She makes us a much better practice team," he said. "She’s got terrific instincts. She can shoot it. She’s a good finisher. She’s working hard on her defense, which is something she’s going to have to work at."
It helps, he said, that Trebilcock isn’t alone in this situation. Seniors Tia Battle and Debbie Merrill also transferred to OSU and had to sit out for a year.
"They know what that experience is like," Foster said. "I think they have extended themselves to her."
Landing Trebilcock, even for 2½ seasons, was a coup for OSU. She was a Parade Magazine Scholastic All-American after her senior season at Hart High School in California and the Los Angeles Daily News player of the year. She left UCLA after four games this season and chose the Buckeyes over Connecticut and Oklahoma.
"To me there are people that are good practice players sometimes and they’re not necessarily gamers," Trebilcock said. "Then there’s like gamers that kind of get through practice. I’ve always been a little more of a gamer.
"So now to have to sit out, it’s a killer. But I just have to look at it that the practices are my games. If I’m helping to make other people better, then I am part of the team."
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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

2/10/06

Friday, February 10, 2006

 

[coastalbuck]

A little more scUM ass whuppin' will be good for a Friday night.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Canton

2/11/06

Buckeye women win 11 straight

Saturday, February 11, 2006

[FONT=Verdana, Times New Roman, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The Associated Press[/FONT]

Ohio State guard Brandie Hoskins gestures for a play during the first half Friday during the Buckeyes’ 74-55 win over host Michigan.​

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Ohio State’s offense got a wake-up call from its All-America center when it needed it the most.
Jessica Davenport scored 13 of her 23 points in the second half and the seventh-ranked Buckeyes beat Michigan, 74-55, on Friday night to extend their winning streak to 11 games.
Marscilla Packer scored 13 points and Kim Wilburn had 10 and five steals for the Buckeyes (20-2, 10-1), who moved into a tie with Purdue for first place in the Big Ten.
“We started moving the ball better in the second half,” said Ohio State Coach Jim Foster, whose team outscored the Wolverines, 24-8, in the last 11 minutes of the game.
“We played the last 11 minutes the way we should be playing. If everyone is moving and involved, we’re a hard team to guard.”
Stephany Skrba had 17 points and a career-high 13 rebounds for Michigan (6-18, 0-12), which lost its 12th straight. The Wolverines haven’t beaten a Big Ten opponent since Jan. 23, 2005, a streak of 22 consecutive games.
Skrba cut the Buckeyes’ lead to 50-47 with a putback 9 minutes into the second half, but Ohio State put together an 8-0 run over the next 3 minutes to take control. Michigan was 0-for-5 from the floor during the decisive stretch.
Davenport, the Big Ten’s leading scorer and a consensus All-American last season, was 6-for-9 from the floor in the second half and finished the game with four blocks. Her presence in the paint freed up shots for the team’s guards in the last 11 minutes.
“We figured they would be up for this game,” Davenport said of Michigan, “but we just talked about clamping down on defense and moving the ball around.”
Packer had 10 points in the second half, including a pair of layups during the run that extended the lead.
Ohio State scored 17 points off the Wolverines’ 20 turnovers and outrebounded Michigan, 38-33.
The Buckeyes had a 10-point lead with 4 minutes to play in the first half but the Wolverines ended the period on a 9-1 run and trailed 32-30 at halftime.
Michigan, which lost starting forward Katie Dierdorf on Sunday to a season-ending hip injury, started four freshmen and a sophomore Friday. Coach Cheryl Burnett added three members of the school’s volleyball team to bolster a roster reduced to seven scholarship players by injuries. “That made us rally a little bit,” Burnett said. “I’m proud that we played hard.” Janelle Cooper scored 13 points and Carly Benson finished with 12 for Michigan.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

2/12/06

Iowa could boost its prospects for postseason by beating OSU

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Jim Massie
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH




Iowa coach Lisa Bluder knows from experience that the bubble is the most uncomfortable seat in basketball.

A season ago, the Hawkeyes finished sixth in the Big Ten regular-season standings and wound up watching the NCAA Tournament on television despite winning 20 games.

Bluder brings Iowa (14-8, 7-4) to Value City Arena today to face seventh-ranked and conferenceleading Ohio State (20-2, 10-1) with postseason possibilities floating in the air again.

Even though the Hawkeyes have upset victories over Purdue and Michigan State this season, the Big Ten is ranked seventh as a conference in the Ratings Percentage Index, which has kersplat written all over it.

"That definitely makes everybody a little more nervous in my position," Bluder said. "If you’re battling for that fourth position or that fifth position, it makes it very nerve racking for us because we know that the lower our conference is, the less teams (the NCAA) is going to take."

The reality also means that the Buckeyes are a large and tempting target. That isn’t exactly news, but for a team in the middle of a four-game, eightday stretch, walks in the park are out of the question.

Last-place Michigan, minus two injured starters, pushed Ohio State to the limit before fading 74-55 Friday night in Ann Arbor. Iowa opened the season with two projected starters — point guard Lindsay Richards and forward Johanna Solverson — out because of knee injuries.

Another starter, center Stacy Schlapkohl, went down 11 games into the season. Reserves Nicole VanderPol and Jenee Graham, both of whom could play today, also have missed games because of injuries.

Ohio State coach Jim Foster credits the Hawkeyes for their perseverance.

"I think they’ve overcome more adversity than maybe any team in the country in terms of injuries," he said. "They’ve just had a lot of players take responsibility and not make excuses for a season that they could have written off. Every time I see them on tape, they’re playing hard and aggressively."

Center Megan Skouby, from Mentor (Ohio) High School, is the leading scorer among Big Ten freshmen at 13.5 points per game. Freshman point guard Kristi Smith teams with senior Crystal Smith to give the Hawkeyes a solid backcourt.

Foster has reason to like his own guards. He played senior point guards Ashley Allen and Kim Wilburn together at times Friday and the two combined with sophomore Marscilla Packer to pop the upset plans of Michigan.

"You play 16 conference games," Foster said. "You can’t get into the habit of complaining if you win a game by 19 on an opponent’s court. I think if you look at our point-guard play the last couple of games, it’s been terrific."

Allen led the Buckeyes with eight rebounds and five assists against the Wolverines. Wilburn had 10 points and five steals.

"When you look at their nuances, you like what you see," Foster said.

"You’re always tweaking and trying to get better."

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Sunday, February 12, 2006

 

[MolGenBuckeye]

Nice showing by the women yesterday. Both Iowa and OSU shot the lights out, but we were able to outscore them down the stretch.

The biggest difference I've seen lately is the emergence of some legitimate three point threats. That's forced opponents to stop triple-teaming Davenport in the middle.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

2/13/06

NO. 7 OHIO STATE 88 | IOWA 77

Buckeyes outgun Hawkeyes in sizzling offensive display

Monday, February 13, 2006

Jim Massie
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

NEAL C . LAURON | DISPATCH Ohio State’s Marscilla Packer, who had 18 points, goes up for a shot against Iowa’s Kristi Smith.

One box score proved to be a thing of wonder for two coaches last night in Value City Arena. Ohio State had just out-slugged Iowa 88-77 to hold onto its share of first place with Purdue in the Big Ten standings with four games remaining in the regular season.


"I thought it was a defensive struggle," coach Jim Foster said with a deadpan smile. "I can’t think of the last time I looked at a stat sheet that saw the other team had 77 points and we won. It’s been a long time."

Iowa coach Lisa Bluder had a similar if sadder take on the same numbers.
"Usually when you shoot 56 percent from the field, 53 percent from the three-point line and 88 percent from the free-throw line and only have 13 turnovers, you win the game," she said.

The Hawkeyes (14-9, 7-5), however, had no answer for the seventh-ranked Buckeyes (21-2, 11-1) at the defensive end. OSU opened the game by hitting its first 11 shots and finished at a torrid 65.4 percent from the field.

Junior center Jessica Davenport paced the attack with 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting.

When Iowa took two hard runs in the second half, pulling into a tie at 50 with 15:41 to go and closing to 79-73 with 2:52 left, OSU refused to blink.

Asked what she was thinking when Iowa made its last-gasp run behind Crystal Smith, OSU junior guard Brandie Hoskins shrugged.

"Nothing," she said. "Just come down and score and relax. Good teams like that are going to make runs. If we get crazy, they’re going to take the lead. We just had to stay consistent."

Senior forward Debbie Merrill appeared to be everywhere at once for the Buckeyes in the final 2:52. She found Davenport under the basket for a score and Marscilla Packer for another to help OSU pull away.

Merrill knocked down three of four free throws in the final 1:46 to ice the team’s 12 th consecutive victory. For the game, she had 15 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Foster has wanted Merrill to think more about her offense and was pleased that she hit 2 of 3 threepoint attempts.

"That’s the Debbie Merrill we get to see every day at practice," Foster said.

"We want her to be more involved in our offense. When she is shooting like that, it opens up opportunities for Brandie and it opens up opportunities for Packer on the perimeter. We become a very hard team to guard."

The box score numbers proved the point. Packer and Hoskins each scored 18 points. The Buckeyes had assists on 26 of their 34 field goals.

"I’m just trying to let the game come to me," Merrill said. "In practice, I shoot the ball non-stop. I get into a game and I’m just passing and passing and passing. Tonight, when we were getting ready to go out, Brandie looked at me and said, ‘You better shoot the ball.’ When I had an open shot, I just took it."

Playing on a left ankle she injured in the first half, Smith scored 21 points and led the final Iowa comeback with three three-pointers. OSU senior guard Ashley Allen chased Smith for much of the game.

"She’s the fastest person I’ve guarded," Allen said. "She can stop on the drop of a dime. You name it, she can do it."

The Buckeyes demonstrated a lot of the same qualities.

"The rest of the games for the rest of the season are big games," Allen said. "It was good to start today. When you have to play every possession, it’s really good for you."

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Monday, February 13, 2006

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Scout.com (free)

2/14/06

Pics from the win over Iowa.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

2/16/06

OSU WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

This one may get up close, personal
Williams Arena fosters intense atmosphere

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Jim Massie
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH




In a new-age basketball world where bells, whistles and corporate boxes dominate modern college arenas, an old barn in Minneapolis looks about as appealing as Ben Franklin sporting a Speedo.
Appearances, however, can be deceiving. Williams Arena, home of the Minnesota Gophers, retains a certain charm that fairly shouts its only reason for existence since the doors opened in 1928. The place was built for college basketball.
"When you walk in, it’s huge," Ohio State All-American center Jessica Davenport said. "Their floor is above where the seats are. I thought that was pretty interesting. It’s kind of like you’re playing on a stage."
In a way, a stage seems a fitting forum for OSU to begin a brutal three-game set that will decide its place in the Big Ten at 8 tonight against Minnesota.
The sixth-ranked Buckeyes (21-2, 11-1) are tied with No. 10 Purdue (20-3, 11-1) atop the conference standings. The 17 thranked Gophers (17-6, 9-3) are in third place and will be the first of three ranked opponents OSU will play in the next eight days.
The Buckeyes play host to No. 14 Michigan State (19-7, 9-4) at 7:30 p.m. Monday before running into the Boilermakers at 8 p.m. Thursday in Value City Arena. The OSU players know what lies ahead but kept their eyes on what awaits them first in Williams Arena.
"Honestly, I like the arena," senior guard Ashley Allen said. "I’m kind of scared with the high-lift floor. But the crowd I would say is intense and exciting. You can feel them on you. I like that feel. Our arena is so big that it’s like everybody is far away. This feels a lot more personal."
The game itself should have the same personal feel. The Gophers lost twice last week to the Spartans in East Lansing and to the Boilermakers in West Lafayette.
The drubbing at Purdue included a humiliating 10-point effort in the second half by Minnesota. Afterward, a local newspaper questioned the team’s heart. The Buckeyes provide an opportunity for redemption.
"I don’t know how they feel," OSU guard Brandie Hoskins said. "But I do know that if that happened to us we’d come out with more of a chip on our shoulders. That would make us want to just kill the opponent we were playing against."
The Buckeyes have their own reasons for wanting to see the Gophers. Minnesota pounded them physically last season on the way to a 66-63 upset in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament.
"Oh yeah, I remember that tournament game," Hoskins said.
It is a safe bet that her teammates do as well. The Buckeyes are a year older now and showed veteran poise in outlasting Iowa 88-77 in an offensive showcase Sunday. They will need to demonstrate the same poise if they want to turn the noise in Williams Arena into background music.
"Once the tip-off happens, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing or where you are," Davenport said. "We’ve been in enough tough environments and we’re at the time of the season where everybody knows how important the games are. . . . You just go out and play basketball."

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Thursday, February 16, 2006

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

2/17/06

OHIO STATE 76 | MINNESOTA 55

Packer buries Gophers with eight 3-pointers

32-point effort helps OSU win 13 th straight

Friday, February 17, 2006

Jim Massie
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

ANDY KING | ASSOCIATED PRESS Ohio State forward Debbie Merrill, who made several nice passes and had eight assists, grabs a rebound in front of Minnesota forward Jamie Broback.


MINNEAPOLIS — Given the most recent history of the Minnesota Gophers, Ohio State understood that the atmosphere last night in Williams Arena figured to resemble a hornet’s nest after a good, solid whack from a broom.

With what was at stake in the Big Ten, it wasn’t surprising that the sixth-ranked Buckeyes (22-2, 12-1) ignored the buzzing while stunning the No. 17 Gophers (17-7, 9-4) 76-55 behind a career-high 32 points from Marscilla Packer. The sophomore guard repeatedly stung the Minnesota defense from long range and tied an OSU record by hitting 8 of 10 three-point shots.

The victory was the 13 th in a row for the Buckeyes, who remained tied with Purdue for first place in the conference. The Gophers lost their third consecutive game despite holding OSU’s top two scorers, Jessica Davenport and Brandie Hoskins, to a combined 16 points.

Packer enjoyed her first experience in Williams Arena.

"I’ve always watched it on TV," she said. "I knew there was going to be a big crowd and a really nice atmosphere for Minnesota. I just tried to stay focused for the game. Luckily, I was hitting shots tonight."

Packer, the top three-point shooter in the conference, made four three-pointers in each half to tie the record set by former teammate Caity Matter. She credited her defense for igniting her offense.

"Defense definitely helps," Packer said. "When you start to get going on defense, you’re getting stops and get sweaty a little bit it definitely makes offense a lot easier."

The OSU defense dominated the Gophers. Davenport collected a season-high eight blocks, and guards Ashley Allen, Kim Wilburn and Tia Battle pestered the Minnesota guards into turnovers at critical times.

"I think (pressure) is the idea for us coming into every game," Allen said. "Me, Kim and Tia are to put pressure on the point guards and make it hard for them to bring it up. I think we did a better job of turning them and making them take time off the clock in the second half."

The Buckeyes built on a 35-25 halftime lead by hitting 9 of their first 10 shots from the field after the break. Packer again was central to the attack with two of three-pointers. But Davenport also began to work over the Gophers on the inside.

A Packer three and two field goals by Davenport opened the lead to 49-32 with 15:36 to play. Minnesota closed to 54-40 on a Natasha Williams score before the Buckeyes surged. Wilburn and Battle each scored off a steal as the lead ballooned to 62-40. Minnesota never recovered despite the urging of 8,658 fans because OSU connected on 18 of 22 shots from the field in the second half.

"I thought we played hard, and I thought we played unselfishly," OSU coach Jim Foster said. "They’re two pretty good attributes to have."

The last time OSU played Minnesota in March 2005, the Gophers tied up Davenport in the low post and pulled off the upset in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament. The same strategy didn’t work this time because the Buckeyes found the open shooter. Senior forward Debbie Merrill did most of that damage with eight assists.

"We’re a better basketball team than the last time we saw them," Foster said. "We move the ball better. We’re a better passing team. Debbie Merrill is a gifted passer. Tonight, she was aggressive and looked at the basket and made some good plays."

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Friday, February 17, 2006

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Scout.com (free)

2/20/06

Game preview of tonight's game vs Michigan State (7:30pm ESPN2). The Lady Buckeyes need to win 2 out of 3 to clinch the Big Ten.