Admit it. If you were watching the Ohio State women’s basketball team early on against No. 1 seed Indiana, you probably either turned the channel or turned your focus onto some Saturday household chores. If so, you missed quite a game.
That’s because the Buckeyes fell down by 24 points late in the first half and looked desperate in trying to stop the Indiana offense. The Buckeyes struggled on the offensive end as well and went into halftime down 46-26. It looked hopeless.
Buy Buckeyes TicketsBut it wasn’t.
The third quarter though was pivotal for Ohio State. The Buckeyes turned up the defensive pressure and began to chip away at the lead, creating steals and buckets in transition to outscore the Hoosiers by ten points and make digging out of the hole much more manageable.
It looked like the comeback effort wouldn’t be good enough in the fourth quarter with the teams going back and forth and basically matching each other. But then, with a little over five minutes left, OSU put on a huge push — again with some pressure on defense — to completely erase the deficit and make just enough plays including one final defensive half-court stand, to pull out a very improbable 79-75 win.
ONTO THE FINALS ‼️ Ohio State completes the biggest comeback in @B1Gwbball tournament history to advance!#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/nRe22c1LzB
— Ohio State WBB (@OhioStateWBB) March 4, 2023
Taylor Thiery led five Ohio State players in double figures with 19 points. She and Cotie McMahon each registered a double-double. Thiery grabbed 12 rebounds and McMahon scored 12 points and tallied a whopping 14 rebounds. Rikki Haris and Taylor Mikesell scored 13 points each, while Jacy Sheldon poured in 12 points in her second game back from injury.
The Buckeyes shot just 35.6% from the floor but forced the Hoosiers into 18 turnovers and made 23-of-25 free throws. They had fourteen more shots than Indiana to offset the accuracy from the floor. OSU had a massive number of steals with 14 total.
With the win, the Buckeyes will get a chance to play for the Big Ten Tournament title on Sunday against Iowa.
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