Ohio State women's basketball team overcomes sloppiness to defeat Penn State 67-55
An aesthetic masterpiece, it was not.
But these days for the Ohio State women’s basketball team, no victory is scoffed at.
The No. 13 Buckeyes defeated host Penn State 67-55 Thursday night at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pennsylvania.
Freshman Cotie McMahon got her first career double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds for Ohio State, which led 60-31 before a late surge by Penn State made the final score respectable.
The teams combined for 38 turnovers, 22 by the Buckeyes. But frigid shooting by Penn State in the first 30 minutes, particularly the third quarter, allowed Ohio State to take a commanding lead.
"Way too many for us," Buckeyes coach Kevin McGuff said of the turnovers. "I think we get really lackadaisical mentally when we get a lead. I just told the team that this time of year, we've got to be way more consistent if we want to be the team we're capable of being down the stretch of the season."
Ohio State (22-5, 12-5 Big Ten) had lost five of seven games since starting the season 19-0, though four of the defeats came against top-10 teams, including an 83-59 loss at home to No. 2 Indiana on Monday.
Penn State (13-13, 4-11) is hardly that. The Nittany Lions have lost five of their last six.
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The Buckeyes were again without star guard Jacy Sheldon (foot), though forward Rebeka Mikulasikova returned from an ankle sprain to play seven minutes.
Penn State used a box-and-1 on Taylor Mikesell, and that limited the OSU guard to nine points on 3-of-12 shooting.
But the Nittany Lions had trouble stopping McMahon’s drives, and Rikki Harris made four 3-pointers on her way to 15 points. She also had seven assists. Taylor Thierry added 13 points.
"I thought we got plenty of good shots," McGuff said. "Sometimes, you've got to have somebody else step up and make some, and Rikki, in particular, made some 3s that really hurt them."
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Penn State missed its final 14 shots in the third quarter, which allowed OSU to expand a 38-30 lead to 51-31. The Buckeyes eventually built the margin to 29 points before Penn State rallied to close within 64-53 with 53 seconds left. The Nittany Lions’ Makenna Marisa had 22 points to lead all scorers.
"I think we had such great stretches tonight, but then we were awful at the end, and they made us pay," McGuff said.
Still, for a team that has struggled so much lately, leaving with a victory was a nice feeling.
"We want to go into every game and win it, but it is not really just about the winning," Harris said. "It's about playing together, and we played together this game so we've just got to keep doing that."
Added McMahon, "I felt like this was a game for us to get back on our feet and to focus on the things that we lacked in the past games we lost and just didn't play our game."
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State women overcome 22 turnovers to win at Penn State, 67-55
