The Buckeyes made the Big Ten side look like a mid-major, defeating the Boilermakers in a wire-to-wire rout.
After a rough five-game stretch for No. 8 Ohio State women’s basketball (23-4, 12-4) needed a reset button. The Buckeyes found it against the Purdue Boilermakers (9-18, 2-14) and Ohio State defeated the side from West Lafayette 98-46 behind a season-best 51.9% three-point shooting day for the Buckeyes.
Ohio State began the second to last home game of the regular season by honoring a pair of Buckeyes playing in their final seasons in senior Taylor Thierry and graduate senior Madison Greene. Both graduate seniors Eboni Walker and Ajae Petty already had their senior days in previous seasons, with Walker celebrating last season in Columbus and Petty in Lexington, Kentucky as a part of the Kentucky Wildcats program.
Right away, the Scarlet and Gray were in good form, with the home side getting out to a 12-0 start and forcing five consecutive missed shots for the visitors. To make matters worse for Purdue, Ohio State went on the run with four different Buckeyes getting into the scoring column.
The Buckeyes defense flustered the Boilermakers and scored six points off five first-quarter turnovers. For Ohio State, they played nearly perfect basketball, not giving the ball away once and shooting 50% from beyond the arc on eight chances.
Ohio State built a 16-point lead at the end of the first quarter and continued to build it in the second. Guard/forward Taylor Thierry was aggressive on defense and forced two steals, part of five more forced turnovers by Ohio State for the second quarter, this time resulting in 11 points.
After a slow start to the game for point guard Jaloni Cambridge, scoring-wise going 1-of-4 from the floor, the freshman piled up 12 second-quarter points and seven came from the free throw line. That’s because Cambridge kept going to the rim, attacking the smaller Purdue lineup, and earning whistles in the process. Cambridge scored eight points of a late 12-point run in the second quarter and Ohio State took a 55-26 lead into the halftime locker room.
For any Purdue fans watching, and hoping for halftime adjustments from the Boilermakers, they didn’t come in the third quarter. Halfway through, Ohio State pushed their lead to 41 points, with guard Chance Gray going on a run where the junior hit 3-of-4 shots from the field, and two from beyond the arc. It’s the first game where Gray hit multiple shots from deep in nine contests, dating back to Jan. 19.
Purdue was simply outmatched from the start. If Ohio State didn’t have only nine players available, with guard Ava Watson again unavailable due to an ankle sprain sustained three games ago against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, McGuff would have only used bench players for the final 10 minutes.
The Buckeyes entered the fourth quarter up 42 points and rode the victory to its likely conclusion of an Ohio State victory.
A big reason for the Big Ten victory was deep shooting. For the first time this season, Ohio State shot over 50% from beyond the arc, hitting 14-of-27 attempts. Those 13 threes were also a single-game high for the Buckeyes this season, eclipsing the 12 hit against the Bowling Green Falcons.
Defensively, the Scarlet and Gray forced 20 turnovers, turning them into 35 points. Ohio State eclipsed Purdue in nearly every statistical category in the win, showing complete dominance over the Boilermakers.
Ohio State’s win featured five players in double-figures, with 20 points from Jaloni Cambridge and 21 from Chance Gray. Forward Cotie McMahon, who went 3-of-4 from deep, scored 16 points with five rebounds. Petty added a double-double with 14 rebounds and 12 points.
The Buckeyes nearly had a program record 55-point winning margin, the highest against a Big Ten side since beating Indiana by 54 on Jan. 8, 2015, but a three by Sophie Swanson in the final minute made it a 52-point OSU victory.
What’s Next
Ohio State has two games remaining in the season, and both are against currently ranked opponents. It starts Wednesday when the No. 22 Michigan State Spartans head to Columbus for a game that will tip at 7 p.m. ET that will air on B1G+.
The Spartans returned home from a trip to Los Angeles, resulting in two defeats to the UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans. As the Buckeyes game Sunday was ending, Sparty started their Sunday afternoon game against the Indiana Hoosiers, in East Lansing.
McGuff’s side has six straight wins against the Spartans, but this season Michigan State is playing a lot like the Buckeyes in terms of defensive pressure and forcing turnovers. Ohio State and Michigan State are No. 1 and No. 2 in the Big Ten in steals, with the Scarlet and Gray edging the Spartans out 11.7 to 11.4 steals per game.