The Buckeyes open up their 2024-25 season against the defending Horizon League regular season champions.
The time to talk about college basketball is over. Tonight, Ohio State women’s basketball knocks off the offseason rust, puts an early 2024 NCAA Tournament exit in the rearview mirror and the 2024-25 season begins.
Starting the campaign is a home matchup against the Cleveland State Vikings, a mid-major opponent who has the ability — and roster — to challenge a new-look Buckeyes.
Preview
Ohio State’s benefited from a strong veteran presence over the past few seasons. In both the transfer portal and through recruiting, the Buckeyes had experienced names who’ve started throughout their NCAA careers either in Columbus or found a new home in scarlet and gray.
Now, a group of seven senior or graduate senior athletes left the program for the professional ranks or a new challenge elsewhere. What left is an Ohio State team with two key returning building blocks and an overhauled roster that showed head coach Kevin McGuff’s ability to attract talent in both the transfer portal and in the incoming freshman class.
For folks who took the summer and fall off from any basketball news, three of the five starters suiting up against Cleveland State aren’t returning starters from last year. Of that group, two of them are transfers with starting experience elsewhere, and both identify key needs that hurt the Buckeyes last season.
In the paint is forward Ajae Petty. The fifth year senior joined the Buckeyes from the Kentucky Wildcats, before the program took a new direction in hiring former Virginia Tech head coach Kenny Brooks.
Petty didn’t start for a team until her senior season, but came up with the LSU Tigers and Kentucky Wildcats in a tough to break into SEC. When Petty did get into the lineup though, she became only one of four players last season in the SEC to average a double-double in points and rebounds.
Ohio State ranked dead last in the Big Ten last season in the rebounding department, averaging 33.5 per game.
Chance Gray joined Petty in picking Ohio State this offseason, coming in after two seasons with the Oregon Ducks. Gray will help the other area: Three-point shooting.
While Gray isn’t the same level of prolific shooter as fellow Ohioan turned Oregon Duck Taylor Mikesell, the Cincinnati, Ohio native can shoot from deep and is better in the paint than the former Buckeye.
The two experienced NCAA student athletes join Cotie McMahon and Taylor Thierry, the only two Buckeyes to start every game for Ohio State in the past two seasons.
McMahon enters this season after playing 3×3 basketball in the summer. A game suited for the forward who drives to the basket, takes on defenders one-on-one and scores baskets. It also brings in a McMahon who’s had to work through the rigors of defending one-on-one in the fast paced 3×3 style game.
Thierry led the nation in offensive rating last season, and with the group around her will continue to not only be an outlet on the offensive side of the court but key in the defense. The guard/forward hybrid has speed and jumping ability to cause issues in the full court press that McGuff is widely known for.
Then there’s the final starting spot.
It’s between fifth year senior Madison Greene and freshman Jaloni Cambridge and all signs indicate the No. 1 overall point guard recruit is getting the starting nod. For one, Cambridge is a talent unlike many have seen in Ohio State history.
Cambridge brings the style of play fans are used to with former Buckeye Jacy Sheldon, but takes the speed to another level. As a freshman, Cambridge is already applauded by her upperclassmen teammates on her court vision, pass-first mentality and fast adjustment to the havoc-inducing press.
Greene will obviously still be around, more than likely the sixth player for the Buckeyes. She’s also someone McGuff can bring in to calm a game down if the young Cambridge and fellow starters need to adjust.
Cleveland State is a good first test for Ohio State, because they’re a side that has similar characteristics to the Buckeyes. Head coach Chris Kielsmeier plays a quick, transition heavy, offense. In other words, the same kind of defense the Buckeyes practice against in-house.
However, Cleveland State brings a roster that makes them look less like a mid-major side. The Vikings start two Horizon League Player of the Year award winners. The 2022-23 winner Destiny Leo is an Ohioan who plays that Sheldon-like role on the court. Running the offense, keeping the team organized and being that extra coach on the court.
Leo only played six games last season for CSU before suffering a season-ending ACL injury. Colbi Maples slid into her place. The former Grambling State guard joined the Vikings and went on to lead them to the program’s first regular season conference title and her own Horizon League Player of the Year award.
Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Coach Kielsmeier calls Maples “violent” in the way she goes to the basket. Maples isn’t afraid to go to the rim, take contact and put the opposition in foul trouble early.
On the perimeter, there’s another transfer starting her second season in Cleveland, Mickayla Perdue. The former Toledo Rockets guard is a deep shooting threat who led the Vikings with 17.3 points and 2.4 made threes per game.
Ohio State
G- Jaloni Cambridge
G- Chance Gray
G- Taylor Thierry
F- Cotie McMahon
F- Ajae Petty
Lineup Notes
- Ohio State will likely feature three new starters in Cambridge, Gray and Petty
- Gray appeared in all but one of the Oregon Ducks’ games in the past two seasons, starting in each appearance
- Before Tuesday’s game, Ohio State will honor McMahon for her 1,000th NCAA point, scored in the NCAA Second Round defeat to the Duke Blue Devils
Cleveland State
G- Colbi Maples
G- Destiny Leo
G- Mickayla Perdue
G- Sara Guerreiro
F- Jordana Reisma
Lineup Notes
- Leo and Maples only played six games together last season, before Leo suffered a season ending ACL injury
- Perdue went 5-for-7 from deep in a loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes on Dec. 26, 2023
- Maples joined CSU from Grambling State, where the guard increased her points per game from 12.0 to 16.6, second on the Vikings in points per game
Prediction
This will be a track meet.
Both sides want to run and push the intensity. Ohio State is one of the best in the country at doing just that, but the success will all depend on the first game jitters and finally seeing this new-look side come together in an actual game of basketball.
Cleveland State will start strong, but the Buckeyes will regroup. Ohio State will give the ball away more than they’d like, but will get turnovers in equal numbers.
Cambridge is the player to watch, starting in her first NCAA game. The lights don’t seem as bright for the youngest Cambridge sister, who scored a game-winning basket on the road to her prep school winning the National Championship.
In comparison, this will be a lower pressure situation, and the trust the team’s built on and off the court this summer will shine through, in moments.
How to Watch
Date: Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024
Time: 6:00 p.m. ET
Where: Schottenstein Center, Columbus, Ohio
Stream: B1G+
LGHL Prediction: 82-62 Ohio State Buckeyes
Eboni Walker continues showing she’s a team player
When you talk to forward Eboni Walker about the Buckeyes, she stresses that she’ll do anything to help the team.
Monday, Ohio State announced official roster numbers and Walker gave up her No. 22 jersey for incoming freshman Cambridge. Walker wore that number through four previous seasons with three different schools, including the Buckeyes.
Now it belongs the Cambridge, who wore No. 22 on her high school stops. It’s also the number of other famous women’s basketball stars like Sheryl Swoopes, A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark.