No. 16 Ohio State downs No. 12 Michigan 74-61 to secure double bye in Big Ten Tournament
Less than four minutes into the first quarter, Ohio State was in trouble.
The No. 16 Buckeyes, playing their final road game of the Big Ten regular season, were trailing at No. 12 Michigan by eight points just 3:19 after tipoff. After grinding out a win at Penn State on Thursday, the Wolverines presented a tougher test for Ohio State, and in the early going the Buckeyes didn't respond well.
Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff called a timeout with 6:41 left in the first quarter, unwilling to wait until the media timeout that comes with under 5 minutes left. Redshirt junior guard Rikki Harris made a 3-pointer on the first possession after the timeout, and the basket flipped the Buckeyes out of their opening slump.
By the 3:48 mark of the first quarter, Ohio State took the lead, and though Michigan pulled back in front shortly after, the Buckeyes were back in front by the end of the quarter and held on from there. Ohio State won 74-61, led by a career-high 23 points from Harris, for its first win over a ranked opponent since the last matchup against the Wolverines on New Year's Eve.
The Buckeyes went 0-4 against ranked competition between the two wins against Michigan.
"I thought we looked different tonight," McGuff said. "Against Penn State in our last game, we had some good stretches and then we just had some awful stretches. That’s what we talked about. It was like, ‘Hey, we’ve just got to get it closer to 40 minutes, doing what we did at Penn State.’ I thought we competed for 40 minutes, for sure, and played pretty well for most of the game."
Both teams were without key players. Ohio State continues to play without senior guard Jacy Sheldon. Laila Phelia, who was the Wolverines' leading scorer when she got hurt two weeks ago, was out with a lower body injury.
Harris has shouldered a large share of the point guard responsibilities in Sheldon's absence, to middling results, but on Monday Harris did just about everything for the Buckeyes until she fouled out with 2:36 left. She went 3 for 4 from beyond the perimeter, 6 of 8 from the free throw line and grabbed four rebounds while recording five assists and seven steals.
Harris' three out of the early timeout set the tone for what was to come. Ohio State made eight straight attempted threes in the first half and went 10-of-19 total from 3-point range. Senior guard Taylor Mikesell made four of them, finishing with 12 points, and sophomore guard Taylor Thierry contributed two threes among her total 15 points.
"(Harris) was outstanding tonight," McGuff said. "Not only just her numbers were great, but her leadership, her intensity and communication with everybody to keep them on the same page and keep them going was great. We ask a lot of her. We play her at all kinds of different positions, and whatever we ask, she tries to do it."
Michigan guard Leigha Brown carved up the Buckeyes' defense, to the tune of a career-high 36 points, but outside of Brown, the Wolverines' offense struggled to get into a rhythm. Against an Ohio State team that featured a balanced offensive attack — something that hasn't been a factor for the Buckeyes during their recent struggles — Brown's night, as impressive as it was, wasn't enough to single-handedly overcome Ohio State.
The Buckeyes' full-court press was back to its typical efficacy, inducing 27 turnovers by the Wolverines. Ohio State scored 17 points off turnovers and 15 points on the fast break, and Michigan was held without a basket over the final 5:12 of the game.
With the win, the Buckeyes secured the No. 4 seed — the final spot that gets a double bye — for the Big Ten Tournament, which begins March 1 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Ohio State concludes the regular season against Maryland at Value City Arena on Friday.
And with the postseason on the horizon, a win like Monday's was exactly what the Buckeyes needed.
"With it being the team up north, of course that’s always a win that we want to have under our belt," Harris said. "But this game, playing together and everybody seeing what we all can do when we do play together, it’s just great going into our next game and the postseason. It was huge."
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Rikki Harris leads Ohio State to 74-61 win over Michigan
