OSU rallies to avoid James Madison upset
As the heat began to rise on the Ohio State women’s basketball team, the Buckeyes did the only thing they could.
They turned the heat up on James Madison.
No. 3 seed Ohio State overcame early cold shooting and a 16-point deficit with pressure defense. The Buckeyes forced the Dukes into 21 turnovers to rally for an 80-66 victory in a first-round NCAA Tournament game Saturday at Value City Arena.
Ohio State (26-7) will play the winner of the North Carolina-st. John’s game that followed the OSU victory.
Cotie Mcmahon, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, had 18 points for OSU. Jacy Sheldon, who missed much of the season with a foot injury, started for the first time since Feb. 5 and added 17 points and nine assists in 36 minutes.
Sheldon had played only 23 minutes total in four games since returning from the injury. Ohio State hadn’t played since losing to Iowa 105-72 in the Big Ten championship game after rallying from a 24-point deficit against No. 2 Indiana in the semifinals.
The long layoff allowed Sheldon to further heal. It also might have contributed to the rust the Buckeyes showed against JMU (26-8), the Sun Belt Conference champion.
OSU has had some unexpected early NCAA losses in recent years, and for much of the first half it looked as if the Buckeyes might be headed for another one. OSU needed a 12-0 run at the end of the first half to trail only 37-34.
Ohio State’s offense sputtered from the start, missing 21 of its first 27 shots. Compounding the problem, Mcmahon and Taylor Thierry each committed two early fouls. Mcguff benched them only briefly because he couldn’t afford to keep them, particularly Mcmahon, off the court. Taylor Mikesell, Ohio State’s leading scorer at 17.3 points per game went 0 for 6 in the first half before finishing with 14 points. Sheldon was 2 for 9 from the field in the first half. OSU missed all six of its 3-point attempts in the first 20 minutes and made only 2 of 17 for the game.
James Madison, which made 3 of its 4 3-pointers, used a 12-1 run to take a 2011 lead and eventually stretched the margin to 35-19.
Then the Buckeyes came alive. Rebeka Mikulasikova and Mcmahon had consecutive three-point plays, and OSU’S press defense began taking a toll. James Madison didn’t score for the final 3:32 of the half.
A Mcmahon layup with 6 seconds left in the half pulled the Buckeyes to within 3 points.
Ohio State finally regained the lead on two free throws by Eboni Walker and took it for good on a 3-pointer with 5:18 left by Mcmahon, OSU’S first from beyond the arc.
From there, the Buckeyes pulled away. Ohio State led 54-50 entering the fourth quarter and scored the first eight points of the final period. The Buckeyes maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
Thierry and Mcmahon eventually fouled out, but by then it didn’t matter. Thierry had 15 points and led OSU with six rebounds.
Kiki Jefferson led James Madison with 17 points.