Changing of the guard in Big Ten
INDIANAPOLIS— Sierra Calhoun hovered near midcourt Sunday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse as the clock ran out on the Big Ten tournament championship game. Her last dribble reverberated with finality — and not just because it closed what had been a brilliant showcase for the Ohio State women’s basketball team. It also marked the end of an era in the Big Ten.
Top-seeded Ohio State beat Maryland, 79-69, to hand the Terps their first loss in the event in a high-speed showdown that serves as the latest entry into what has bloomed into the league’s best rivalry.
“Ohio State had more possessions,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. “They were better than us tonight, they’re a tremendous team. This conference prepares us for what’s out ahead with so many talented seniors.”
Second-seeded Maryland had won the previous three tournament finals after joining the league and was looking to become the first program to win four consecutive Big Ten tournament crowns.
Their battle for that milestone was always going to have been a tough one; there had been a sea change in the Big Ten this year. Before this season, Ohio State
(27-6) was the only program in three seasons to have beaten Maryland in league play.
But this year, the Big Ten was stronger than it had been in seasons and the Terps began their campaign short-handed after three players unexpectedly decided to transfer at the end of last year. They suffered another blow when they lost then-second leading scorer Blair Watson to an ACL tear Jan. 11, and the rest of the conference took aim at an inexperienced roster with a seven-woman regular rotation.
Maryland (25-7) dropped four games after losing Watson, and though its lone regular-season meeting with Ohio State wasn’t one of them — the Buckeyes fell, 99-69, in College Park in January — it seemed fitting that they were the ones to finally dethrone the Terps.
“On that particular night earlier in the year, they really gave us a beatdown, and probably the best thing that happened to us,” Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said. “Like Woody Hayes used to say: Nothing cleanses the soul like a [butt]-kicking. So we got cleansed that day.”
The Buckeyes entered Sunday’s game with 10 straight wins against Big Ten teams.
Kelsey Mitchell, the third-leading scorer in NCAA history with 3,363 career points, was phenomenal as usual for Ohio State. The 5-foot-8 senior from Cincinnati led all players with 25 points, including five 3-pointers, and was voted the tournament’s most outstanding player.
Stephanie Mavunga added 15 points and a game-high 12 rebounds for the Buckeyes, who secured the sixth Big Ten tournament title in program history and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
The Terps held strong against the top seed but for a costly defensive lapse in the second quarter. They were led by their veteran players — Kaila Charles led Maryland with 22 points and 11 rebounds, senior Kristen Confroy added 17 points, including five 3-pointers, and redshirt senior Ieshia Small added 13 points off the bench.
It was the second quarter that doomed Maryland, when Calhoun shot a 3-pointer that set off a 12-0 run with seven minutes left in the half. Junior forward Brianna Fraser had picked up her second foul and subbed out, and both Charles and Frese said that threw the team off defensively.
Maryland showed its youth during that streak as they struggled to keep pace while the Buckeyes shifted into a higher gear. The experience gap between the two teams is vast, despite the Terps’ championships — Ohio State starts four seniors and a junior, while the Terps have just one senior in the starting lineup, Confroy.
“Hey, we’ve had a lot of success,” Frese said after the game. “Sometimes it’s just not your night, and credit goes to Ohio State. I mean, they had hungry seniors — what did they have, five or six? — that have been waiting for their turn.”