A lot has been said about the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes in the 1993 Final Four, but to get there Ohio State had to go through a revenge-minded Virginia Cavaliers.
The 1992-93 season of Ohio State women’s basketball is program history for many reasons. It’s the first time the program had a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the only time it made the Final Four and the National Championship game.
To get there though, the Buckeyes had a difficult road. In the Second Round, the bigger Western Kentucky Hilltoppers committed 29 fouls, including a no call when 6-foot-4 center Paulette Monroe’s elbow made contact with the face of 6-foot-2 forward Stacie Howard within the first minute of the game.
“They’re probably the most cheap shot team we’ve ever played,” said Ohio State forward Nikki Keyton.
Ohio State won hitting 29-of-34 free throws to defeat the reigning national runners-up in a the 86-63 Buckeyes victory. That win set up a regular season rematch against the Virginia Cavaliers. The second consecutive game of the 1993 NCAA Tournament against a side that made the 1992 Final Four.
Virginia and Ohio State were not going to throw elbows and cheap shots, but the Buckeyes felt disrespected after defeating the Cavaliers in St. John Arena on Jan. 2. On national television, Ohio State defeated then No. 5 ranked Virginia side 91-84.
“People out here thought the first time was a fluke,” said freshman forward Katie Smith. “They [Virginia] said they lost it themselves. It seemed we weren’t even there.”
Smith was unstoppable against the Cavaliers just over two months prior. The freshman scored a career high 35 points, humbling a side still adjusting to the graduation of basketball hall of fame inductee Dawn Staley.
The always confident Smith was young and unafraid.
“I knew that if we ever play Virginia again that Katie Smith would be the main focus,” said Smith. “I know they haven’t forgotten that I scored 35 points against them the first time we played them.”
Virginia’s feeling was mutual, feeling that they let themselves down and wanted a chance to rectify that situation in the Elite Eight.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about that the first thing when the pairings came out,” said Virginia guard Dena Evans.
It was a revenge battle that even the Buckeyes could appreciate. Ohio State entered the tournament as the Big Ten regular season champions, but to do that they had to make up for early losses. Head coach Nancy Darsch’s side lost to both the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Penn State Nittany Lions in their first matchups during the conference season, but made up for both defeats the second time the teams met.
Ohio State and Virginia was a collision course of one team trying to make their second Final Four, and prove the doubters wrong who counted them out with a Staley-sized gap and the No. 1 seeded Buckeyes who hoped to make their first national semifinal in program history. In 10 years of the NCAA Tournament, Ohio State never got past the Elite Eight, and the Virginia Cavaliers were the next step in breaking through the program ceiling.
The matchup lived up to the expectations.
With 2:59 left in the first half, Ohio State built an 11-point lead before coach Darsch’s rotation happened to put all of her starters on the bench. It proved costly for the Buckeyes as the Cavaliers went on a 7-2 run heading into the locker room. It cut the lead to six points, only two possessions, and gave the Cavaliers momentum.
“That’s where we sputtered on the offensive end,” said Darsch. “Even though we gave up some momentum going into the half, it gave our starters a couple extra minutes of rest and helped them refocus more in the second half.”
Virginia took it into the second half, but it went higher than three points. Defensively, the Cavaliers’ plan to limit Smith worked and the freshman scored 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting, four points under Smith’s team-leading 18.1 points per game season average.
It was the senior duo of Averrill Roberts and Audrey Burcy stepping into Smith’s quieter offensive day. Roberts led all Buckeyes with 25 points, with Burcy adding 20. The two each grabbed three steals, part of 23 forced turnovers against Virginia that day.
“I just have to credit our seniors,” said Darsch. “They believed in themselves.”
That belief did not come easy late in the Virginia game. The Buckeyes took a one-point lead with 7:10 remaining in the game, a lead they would not give up, but they did not make it easy on themselves.
Up four points with 31.5 seconds remaining, Smith missed the first shot on two consecutive 1-and-1 situations. The 1-and-1 free throw went away when the NCAA moved women’s basketball from two halves to four quarters in the 15-16 season. Similar to what men’s basketball does today, if the player made the first free throw of the 1-and-1, they had another shot opportunity. If the player missed, the ball goes back into play.
Keyton hit one free throw of a 1-and-1 but the Cavaliers made a layup to bring the Ohio State lead down to a single possession. Smith fouled guard Jenny Boucek with 9.8 seconds left in the game and the guard made it a two-point game.
Smith had another opportunity to hit a 1-and-1 but for the third time in a row missed the first attempt, which was unheard of for the Buckeye legend. Against Western Kentucky, Smith went a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line, the fifth time Smith achieved the feat that season. It is still the only perfect free throw performance for a Buckeye who shot at least 10, so missing three in a row added even more pressure to the situation.
Down two points, with the game on the line, the Second Team All-ACC guard Evans got the ball in front of her bench and nailed a three-point shot with .6 seconds remaining, which would have counted if Virginia head coach Debbie Ryan did not call a timeout.
After the game, Ryan told the media that she tried well before the shot to call a timeout, but the officials did not see or hear the coach. Either way, Virginia had one more chance but within a window of only a couple seconds, an errant Virginia pass, a mistake by the Buckeyes to step out of bounds on the inbound pass and a blocked inbound by Smith against Evans ended the game, giving Ohio State a 75-73 victory.
“We never talked negative or about how this could be their last practice or game. It’s all been positive,” said Darsch. “Think good things and good things will happen. So we all had a quiet confidence that we were going to be able to do well this season.”
Ohio State won its first, and still only, Elite Eight game to make the Final Four. They also defeated the Cavaliers for the second time that season, and this time with even more on the line.
Smith had a list of suitors and making her final cut were the Buckeyes, Kentucky Wildcats, Stanford Cardinal and Virginia Cavaliers. That second win left no doubt in the freshman’s mind.
“This is why I came to Ohio State. This is what I dreamed about,” said Smith. “I’m glad I didn’t go to Virginia.”
All quotes and game details from the Columbus Dispatch and Lantern historical databases. Statistics from College Basketball Reference and ESPN.
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