The Buckeye and Hawkeye rivalry renewed Sunday in Iowa City
No. 12 Ohio State women’s basketball traveled to Iowa City to face the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday. Before the game even tipped, the loss of forward Kylee Kitts, due to a shoulder injury, put question marks around how the Buckeyes could compete inside the paint against a tough duo of Hawkeye bigs. Iowa had a response for every Ohio State move and sent the Buckeyes home with their worst Big Ten loss of the season, 91-70.
First quarter
Iowa faced a problem immediately after the jump ball. On the Buckeyes first offensive possession, the senior guard pulled up, holding her left knee. The guard needed carried off the court and never returned to the game.
Ohio State entered the game knowing the mismatch inside the paint with forward Hannah Stuelke and center Ava Heiden, and Iowa looked like it knew too. Stuelke led scorers with 10 points in the first quarter and six of those came inside the paint on layups. The Buckeyes had guards Chance Gray, Kennedy Cambridge, Jaloni Cambridge and Bryn Martin on the senior, with the same result.
The matchup between Ohio State center Elsa Lemmilä and Ava Heiden neutralized one of the bigs, but even so the Hawkeyes built a double-digit lead thanks to a 12-point run. That stretch came after guard Ava Watson went to the bench with two fouls. The guard went 3-for-3 to start the game and had eight of Ohio State’s first 11 points of the game, plus an assist to Gray on the other three points.
Second quarter
Knowing the focus on Stuelke, and Ohio State’s move to a zone defense, Iowa took advantage from beyond the arc in the second quarter. After the Buckeyes scored the first five points of the quarter, Iowa guard Kylie Feuerbach hit the first of the Hawkeyes’ five shots from deep in the period, exploiting the extra space in the corners from the team second in the Big Ten with 20.9 assists per game.
Of Iowa’s nine made shots in the second quarter, eight featured an assist as the Hawkeyes cut through the Ohio State defense with relative ease. While the zone worked to keep Stuelke off the scoresheet in the second quarter, the Buckeyes’ own offense continued to stay cold.
The Buckeyes hit two of their last 11 shots of the quarter and Iowa scored 13 of the last 18 points of the half. Iowa’s lead grew to 19 points, but Gray hit a three-point shot in the final minute to put the Buckeyes down 48-32 heading into the halftime locker room.
In the first half, Iowa out rebounded Ohio State 30-11 and out shot the Buckeyes 57.6% to 34.2%. So that meant head coach Kevin McGuff’s side did not earn extra possessions from boards and with all the missed shots could not get into a full court press.
Third quarter
Kennedy Cambridge came out of halftime and played motivated basketball with the first five points of the quarter for Ohio State, plus defensive pressure, but it did not matter too much because Iowa went back to its inside game and Stuelke’s ability to carve through the weakened Buckeye interior. Stuelke had six points and three rebounds in the first half of the third quarter.
Sustained shooting for Ohio State came from Jaloni Cambridge, who went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc, but each one of them had an Iowa basket in response. Ohio State got the deficit down to 15 points, for a moment, but the consistent responses from the Hawkeyes eventually pushed their lead to 20 points with 3:16 left in the quarter and took that same advantage into the fourth quarter.
Fourth quarter
Ohio State needed freezing cold shooting from Iowa, double-digit turnovers and efficient shooting to come back from a 20-point deficit with 10 minutes remaining. That did not come and Iowa played a complete 40-minute game. If it was a game of chess, Iowa head coach Jan Jensen was always a few moves ahead of the Buckeyes.
Regardless of the score, Jaloni Cambridge kept fighting and went on an eight-point run on her own. That trimmed the Hawkeyes’ lead to 14 points with 2:42 remaining, but the Hawkeyes continued their outstanding shooting. Sophomore guard Chit-Chat Wright hit two threes and a layup in response to take away any sort of doubt.
A bright mark for Ohio State came in the record books. Lemmilä’s five-block performance put the center over 100 blocks in her career, only the 12th Buckeye in program history to hit the mark.
Number of the game: 42 & 48
Those are the total points in the paint and rebounds for the Hawkeyes, respectively. Kitts’ absence against the Indiana Hoosiers was felt, but it was an opposing roster that still gave Ohio State an overall size advantage. The Hawkeyes had no problems with the Buckeye interior and it showed.
In total, Iowa had 28 more points in the paint and 18 more rebounds than the Buckeyes.
Key performers
Ohio State
- Jaloni Cambridge: 26 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals
- Chance Gray: 16 points
Iowa
- Addison Deal: career high 20 points, 5 assists
- Hannah Stuelke: 18 points, 15 rebounds
Up Next
Ohio State returns home for another later Thursday night start when the Wisconsin Badgers travel to Columbus for an 8:00 p.m. tip. Before Sunday, the Badgers had impressive victories against the Oregon Ducks and No. 24 ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers. The victory over the Ducks needed two overtimes and a career day from Destiny Howell, who hit a program record 10 three-point shots.
The Buckeyes have a four-game winning streak against the Badgers and have not lost at home to Wisconsin since Jan. 16, 2000.
Category: General Sports
