Ohio State vs. Central Michigan
6:30 P.M. MONDAY
St. John Arena ESPN2 WBNS-AM (1460)
Ohio State 28-6; Central Michigan 29-4
The Chippewas, regular season and tournament champions of the Mid-American Conference, have won 21 of their past 22 games … The Buckeyes, also regularseason and tournament champs of the Big Ten, have won 12 of their past 13. … Both teams have a strong inside presence in 6-foot-3 post players Stephanie Mavunga of OSU and Tinara Moore of CMU. … Both teams have dynamic guards, CMU’s Presley Hudson and Micaela Kelly, and OSU’s Kelsey Mitchell and Linnae Harper. … OSU is
PROJECTED STARTERS OHIO STATE G Kelsey Mitchell, 5-8, Sr., 24.1 G Sierra Calhoun, 6-0, Jr., 11.7 G Linnae Harper, 5-8, Sr., 14.4 F Alexa Hart, 6-3, Sr., 5.2 F Stephanie Mavunga, 6-3, Sr., 16.6
G Asia Doss, 5-7, Sr., 8.0; F Makayla Waterman, 6-2, Jr., 3.5; G Jensen Caretti 6-1 So. 2.4.
CENTRAL MICHIGAN G Micaela Kelly 5-6 Fr. 11.5 G Presley Hudson 5-6 Jr. 18.1 G Cassie Breen 5-10 Sr. 11.9 F Tinara Moore 6-3 Sr. 18.9 F Reyna Frost 6-0 Jr. 14.0
G Maddy Watters 5-9 Fr. 1.5; G Aleah Swary 5-10 Sr. 2.5; F Kyra Bussell 6-1 Fr. 2.7.
realize, ‘OK, we’ve got to start talking the talk, we’ve got to start walking the walk.’ And when we were doing that, we started to win games, and everybody likes winning. So everything kind of clicked then — ‘Oh, this is actually working.’"
Ohio State’s AllAmerica guard, Kelsey Mitchell, is just 19 points shy of tying former Missouri State player Jackie Stiles for second place on the all-time women’s scoring list at 3,393, but she stepped back and scored a mere 11 while dishing out seven assists Saturday in an 87-45 romp over George Washington while Mavunga (22) and others stacked up the points. Careful preparation and then carrying it through to the game was the difference, Mitchell said.
“If we can just contain that, and I think we will, I think we can go
a long way,” Mitchell said.
Central Michigan coach Sue Guevara — who was a graduate assistant at Ohio State during the mid-1980s, and a former coach at Michigan — said her team also is riding the wave of getting it done as a group, with Moore at the center of it all. The Chippewas beat LSU 78-69 on Saturday, the program's first NCAA Tournament win, and the team's focus was noticeable, she said, as her players turned the page quickly to OSU.
“We didn’t want to two-step: one step in, one step out,” Guevara said of the NCAA appearance. “We wanted to dance a little bit more, and that’s what we’ve done. What I like about this team … is it’s just back to business. It’s back to, ‘Here we go.’"