Buckeyes win, but lament lack of defense
In the two most recent games for the Ohio State women’s basketball team, there have been two different calibers of opponents and two different results. But following both games, the Buckeyes have had the same feeling of discontent.
On the heels of a 69-60 loss at No. 14 Duke on Thursday, the Buckeyes knocked off Maine 83-70 at Value City Arena on Sunday. Both results left Ohio State unsatisfied for the same reason: an inability to sustain consistent energy and effort for 40 minutes.
“Practice is going to be real long tomorrow,” said forward Stephanie Mavunga, who led the Buckeyes with 26 points and 16 rebounds. “Everybody just looked a little somber coming out after (coach Kevin McGuff’s) message just now. We just have to get better on defense, we aren’t playing defense at all. We let girls come in here and get 25, 30 points or whatever they want to do against us.
“(McGuff) said he doesn’t care if we don’t work on offense for the rest of the season. We’re going to work on defense and that starts tomorrow.”
Mavunga noted something that McGuff has been preaching all season: the team is relying too much on offense, and it’s a habit that all agree needs to be kicked quickly.
Ohio State (8-2) held the Black Bears to just eight points in the first quarter and 24 by halftime, but allowed 21 and 25 points in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, forcing the Buckeyes to rely on their offense. OSU answered the call and scored 48 points in the second half after leading 35-24 at intermission.
Maine (4-4) hit 14 three-pointers, tying the most by an Ohio State opponent at Value City Arena, and Julie Brousseu dropped a game-high 29 points on 10-of-18 shooting (including 7 of 12 from three-point range).
It certainly wasn’t the defensive performance McGuff was hoping to see from his team after the loss at Duke.
“It was just inconsistent,” McGuff said. “I thought we started out great. Good energy. Good presence on the defensive end and that led to great things. We just didn’t sustain anything good for any long stretches today, and that was the biggest problem.”
Mavunga’s offensive rebound and tip-in at the buzzer to end the third quarter notched the 1,000 rebound of her career.
Kelsey Mitchell struggled on 3-of-15 shooting and scored only 11 points. She needed 19 points to tie Jantel Lavender as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 2,818 points. Mitchell likely will achieve that milestone on Wednesday at Florida.
The erratic performance against Maine could have been worse — the Buckeyes endured two injury scares. Forward Makayla Waterman was down for a long time near the end of the first quarter after falling hard on a layup attempt, but McGuff said she just had the wind knocked out of her. Mitchell appeared hobbled after diving for a loose ball out of bounds, but McGuff said she was fine.