Ohio State closes book on Iowa with trip to Indiana looming

The Buckeyes head to a loud Assembly Hall environment with a need for defense, consistency and composure

It was an eventful four days for No. 8 Ohio State women’s basketball. Following a rough week in Los Angeles, losing to then-No. 1 UCLA and No. 7 USC, the Buckeyes returned home only to let two double-digit leads slip away, needing overtime to get back in the win column.

Ohio State defeated the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Thursday and then the Iowa Hawkeyes on Monday, but now the Buckeyes head to Bloomington, Indiana for a quad one matchup against the unranked Indiana Hoosiers.

Despite their up-and-down season, already losing six conference games for the first time since the 2018-19 season, the Buckeyes have to play on the road in an always loud Assembly Hall. Before the two programs tipoff, here are storylines heading into the second to last home game of the regular season for the Scarlet and Gray.

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Iowa vs. Ohio State Rivalry Stronger Than Ever

Last season, the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes played in front of a program record 18,660 people in the Schottenstein Center with Ohio State again needing overtime to defeat former Iowa guard Caitlin Clark in a 100-92 home victory.

After the game junior forward Cotie McMahon said the game was personal to her, following the 2022-23 season where the Buckeyes lost to the Hawkeyes twice. The first ended with Clark grabbing a “dub chain” giveaway shirt and slinging it over her shoulder as she walked in front of the Buckeye faithful. Then, in the Big Ten Tournament final, the Clark’s triple-double gave Iowa a lopsided 105-72 Ohio State defeat.

So, with Clark now in the professional ranks, there’s reason to think that maybe Iowa and Ohio State lost some of its luster. McMahon was asked if the rivalry was still personal to her following Monday’s victory.

“Yeah, for sure,” said McMahon. “It’s never going to change.”

It wasn’t only words but actions. After missing late free throws that could have sealed the game up, McMahon played aggressively in overtime to ensure a Buckeyes victory.

When the clock wasn’t running, McMahon also made her thoughts clear when forward Hannah Stuelke fouled out of the game. Stuelke, who was mostly neutralized in the Iowa defeat, left the court with McMahon waving to her the fellow junior.

There’s no love lost between the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes, even without the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, which makes these matchups even more exciting not only for the fans but the players when they step on the court.

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Finding the Defensive Positives

For all the justified talk surrounding the Buckeyes giving away two double-digit fourth quarter leads in the past week, there are positives to point to within the Ohio State squad.

Take Stuelke’s game as an example. The forward entered Monday averaging 12.9 points, 7.9 rebounds and .479 field goal percentage. In the past few years, when a big takes on the Buckeyes, it means close to a career day for whoever is in the paint — not for Stuelke.

Forward Ajae Petty got the game going, grabbing three quick rebounds over the Iowa forward but just as quickly went to the bench due to foul trouble. When 6-foot-6 center Elsa Lemmilä played against the former Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year, Stuelke had difficulties getting any sort of consistent offense going.

Stuelke ended the day with 10 points on 5-of-12 shooting with five rebounds. In three previous regular season games against the Buckeyes, the forward averaged nearly a double-double with 13.7 points and 9.7 rebounds per game.

“We wanted her to have to score over Elsa [Lemmilä]. She’s such a great player and if you give her angles or she dribbles by you and she gets at the rim, she finishes at an extremely high rate,” said head coach Kevin McGuff. “But I thought Elsa moved her feet, moved her feet, made her shoot over her so we could get her to miss enough.”

The Finnish freshman didn’t only get Stuelke to miss, she also picked up a big block when the star forward tried to hit a reverse layup under the basket.

Ralph Schudel

Joining Lemmilä with a strong defensive performance off the bench was redshirt sophomore Kennedy Cambridge. The Kentucky transfer played 23 minutes, nearly as many as starting shooting guard Chance Gray with 24, and when Cambridge wasn’t making SportsCenter the top-10 plays of the day, she was hitting a single game career high 16 points.

However, the key defensive moment of the night for Cambridge came in overtime when the Hawkeyes had a chance to cut the deficit to one point. The Hawkeyes missed a three-point attempt but picked up the offensive rebound with a chance at hitting a layup at the basket.

Cambridge tracked the rebound and timed a block perfectly in a three-point game. Instead of sending the ball to the fifth row, Cambridge kept the ball inbounds, picked up the loose ball and unleashed a chest pass halfway across the court to a breaking Taylor Thierry to put away the victory with 30 seconds remaining.

In late game moments, McGuff is keeping both Lemmilä and Cambridge in the game, showing the trust the two have built to play over their starting counterparts. Both have earned the trust with clutch performance after clutch performance over the last month of the season, and line up well to lead the team in the next two to three seasons.

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Assembly Hall Initiation

The last time the Buckeyes played in Assembly Hall was in the winter of 2023. Since then, only four Ohio State players from that game are on the roster this time around. In that game, Indiana won 78-65 in a close game for the first half but the duo of guard Grace Berger and forward Mackenzie Holmes was too much to take for the Scarlet and Gray.

Despite that game coming now over two years back, the experience still holds a special place in one of those returning Buckeyes’ hearts.

“I don’t really like it,” said McMahon. “It’s just old school.”

A former player who does like it is guard Jacy Sheldon, who’s on the roster as the team’s head of player development and she is doing what she can to prepare the uninitiated Buckeyes in what to expect.

McMahon went on to say how much Sheldon enjoyed playing at Assembly Hall in front of a large crowd who not only understands and loves the game of basketball, but they’ll let the fans and referees know it.

The Hoosiers’ old school basketball arena is a legendary venue. It’s the kind of gym that has an aura about it that seeps through the wooden bleachers and through the intensity of the crimson-clad fans and students who send a wall of sound bouncing off its 54 year old walls. Expect that and more for a marquee matchups like Thursday.

Despite the Hoosiers struggling this season, they’re still predicted to be a tournament team with the gauntlet that is the Big Ten schedule. Indiana’s played closely against teams like UCLA, beat the Iowa Hawkeyes but also fell to the Harvard Crimson and Butler Bulldogs. However, Indiana is on a three-game winning streak at home, even if there are two away games sandwiched in-between the wins.

Even so, playing a top-10 Ohio State team will bring out a more motivated Hoosiers team that is still trying to adjust to life without Holmes, who graduated last season as the program’s all-time leading scorer.

So, it’s hard to know which team the Buckeyes are going to get in Bloomington, but it has the makings of an entertaining night.

“The only thing I can say is that it’s loud. I mean, it’s really loud,” said McMahon. “And they show up and show out every time we’re there. So it’ll be a good game. It’ll be fun.”

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Picking Up a Strong Win

Even with the Hoosiers’ 16-9 record, as of publishing the Hoosiers are No. 39 in the NET rankings, which means that Thursday’s game will be a quad 1 contest for Ohio State, should the Hoosiers not fall below No. 40.

The Buckeyes are 2-2 in quad 1 games this season, also known as the toughest level of competition that holds more weight when the NCAA Tournament committee decides the seeding of teams for March Madness.

Compared to other teams in the committee’s top-16 released on Sunday, Ohio State is tied for the fewest quad 1 games because of a light non-conference schedule set up by the Buckeyes this year.

Ohio State is No. 14 in the rankings, meaning that the program is close to having to go on the road for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. So, a win against Indiana will only help to boost the chances of less travel in the chaotic basketball month of March.

When the rankings were announced live on ESPN, Coach McGuff was stuck in bad weather on his way to Xavier to take part in a jersey retirement for two of his former players. Even if he wasn’t, an early seeding announcement isn’t worrying the leader of Ohio State’s program.

“I didn’t even watch it. I didn’t, I didn’t know anything about it,” said McGuff. We were 14. I can’t tell you who was 13 or 15 or 16. And it is what it is. I mean, the bottom line is between this game today and the next, what, four? We got ourselves, we can play up or down. I mean, depending upon how we do. We play Indiana Thursday, they play great at home. We’re focused on practice, play that game and that’s about it.”

After Indiana, the Buckeyes have two quad 1 games in their final three regular season games. Not to mention the Big Ten Tournament. McGuff is fine with worrying about the next game and letting the chips fall where they may on March 16 when the committee announces the full 68-team field.