Ohio State dominated by Iowa in Big Ten Tournament final
Ohio State was completely helpless. A day after pulling off the largest comeback in Big Ten Tournament history, erasing a 24-point deficit against Indiana to advance to the championship game, the Buckeyes had no answer for Iowa. The game was close for the first five minutes. Then the Hawkeyes got on a roll, and there was nothing Ohio State could do about it.
The Buckeyes trailed by 17 points after the first quarter, by 37 at halftime, by 29 after the third quarter and by 33 when the final buzzer rang on the 105-72 loss in Minneapolis on Sunday.
“We just had a disastrous first half and they made us pay,” OSU coach Kevin Mcguff said. “They were so efficient on offense. They played great and deserved to win. We have to get back and kind of get our mojo back a little bit.”
For the majority of the first half, Caitlin Clark single-handedly outperformed the Buckeyes. Through the first 20 minutes, she had 23 points and nine assists, and Ohio State had 24 points and seven assists.
The Buckeyes outscored Iowa by four points in the second half, 48-44, but the hole from the first half was far too deep to climb out of. Clark completed a tripledouble, her second in two games against the Buckeyes this year, to finish with 30 points, 17 assists and 10 rebounds.
The Buckeyes have a week of practice ahead of them before they learn who their NCAA Tournament opponent will be. In ESPN'S latest projected bracket, Ohio State was a No. 3 seed, which would mean the Buckeyes would host the first two rounds.
“I feel like all we can do is move on to
the next,” OSU forward Cotie Mcmahon said. “We know what we need to work on. We have two weeks of practice to buckle down, take care of what we need to take care of and be ready to come out and play our game.”