Kennedy Cambridge’s acrobatics shatter lethargic start for Ohio State women’s basketball

Cambridge played seven first half minutes, but made the most of every single one of them, changing the momentum of the game

On Monday, No. 9 Ohio State women’s basketball celebrated the first Freshman of the Week honor for point guard Jaloni Cambridge. The honor was justified, with the No. 1 overall point guard in the 2024 class averaging 21 points, five rebounds and two assists in the double victory week for the Buckeyes.

On Sunday though, it was her older sister Kennedy Cambridge who played limited minutes, but they were about quality over quantity.

The first quarter of the Buckeyes game against the Oregon Ducks on Sunday was rough. Ohio State shot an abysmal 19 percent from the floor, even worse than a 40 percent showing Wednesday night in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Ohio State wasn’t moving the ball through the Oregon defense, settling for shots and not able to get into their lethal full court press. Head coach Kevin McGuff brought in redshirt guard Kennedy Cambridge with two minutes remaining in the quarter.

Within 15 seconds, Cambridge already had two offensive rebounds, with the second sending the guard out of bounds but not before the defensive-minded former Kentucky Wildcat threw the ball off an Oregon defender to keep possession for the Buckeyes.

In just over two minutes, Cambridge grabbed three rebounds, two offensively, and made a jumper with one second remaining, which put the Buckeyes within a possession.

“What changed the game is when we put Kennedy [Cambridge] in,” said head coach Kevin McGuff. “I thought her effort, intensity, and making hustle plays really just ignited us and we went on a great run there.”

Great is a bit of an understatement. Ohio State went on a 27-point run. Now, Cambridge didn’t turn that defense into game changing offense, and suddenly become another version of her younger sister. Cambridge had two points in the run, but if style earned extra points, it would have been worth a little more.

On a fast break, guard Chance Gray found Cambridge running towards the basket, hit the pass and Cambridge Euro-stepped between two defenders and tripped on a defender’s leg. The guard went crashing to the court but not before heaving the ball into the air from only a couple feet above the ground, banking it off the backboard, as shown below (third made basket of the video):

“You know, that was God because I did not think that was going in,” said Cambridge. “So yeah, I just prayed and it went in.”

Oregon might have been praying for the run to end, but the Buckeyes had 17 more points coming after that circus shot went in. The 27-point run was a far cry from the Buckeyes of the first half. Instead of forcing whatever they could get, the Scarlet and Gray looked confident, poised and ready to disrupt anything the Ducks sent their way.

Speaking of disruption, Cambridge got up quickly from that answered prayer and immediately won the ball back for Ohio State.

“I personally don’t think that I was the spark that got us going,” said Cambridge. “I think that we all were just hyped and turnt. We were just happy.”

To Kennedy Cambridge, the notion that she was the person who sparked what would become the game-winning run for the Buckeyes was as far off base as the chances of that layup going into the basket. Senior guard/forward Taylor Thierry set the record straight, in a moment where she let her media training guard down and spoke honestly about her teammate.

“Ken was definitely the spark this game. She’s honestly the spark every game,” said Thierry. “Like, any time we’re lacking energy or something’s off, especially defensively, we can always trust that Ken’s going to come to the game, give it her all, dive on the floor. Like if I had a dollar for every time she dove on the floor, I mean, I’d be rich. So just seeing that too, like your teammates giving it their all, you know, that just motivates you to even push through, even if you’re tired or anything.”

Kennedy Cambridge was humbled by her teammate’s words.

“I think that’s easy to do when you love your teammates,” said Cambridge.

That love was reciprocated in the locker room following the win, the 16th in a row for the Buckeyes.