Ohio State is at a place where McMahon can’t take a night off, and it was the reason the team continues undefeated start
On paper, Ohio State women’s basketball was more than equipped to travel into Nashville and beat the Belmont Bruins soundly. While the mid-major side has key moments in the past few seasons, like a first-round win over the Oregon Ducks in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, recent history shows the talent gap between the schools.
Sunday, going off paper and onto the court, the Bruins gave the Buckeyes everything and a late nine-point Ohio State comeback gave head coach Kevin McGuff’s side their first road win of the season. Without Cotie McMahon on the court, it would’ve been a different story.
For two years, McMahon had those games where the headlines write themselves. Moments where she took games and put them on her shoulders. There were also games where it just wasn’t working in McMahon’s favor. While the highlights came more often than not, the underclassmen could afford to have a bad game here or there.
Now in year three, the forward from Centerville has graduated into a new role. The role of the steady foundation.
“I really can’t take games off,” said McMahon. “And that I mean I need to help my team this year, especially just because we’re young. We have all the pieces we need, but I’m a big part of that piece, so just making sure that I’m here to do what I can and do what I know I can do and what my team kind of believes in me to do.”
Ohio State needed all of McMahon Sunday, and she gave it. The junior scored 21 points, which came from her patented drives to the basket, taking contact and hitting the court hard. In the first quarter, it meant limping off the court holding her knee, but she came back quickly to still log a 40-minute game.
McMahon also shot from deep or found a midrange shot and was the only player to score in all four quarters for the Buckeyes.
“Coti, especially in the first half, kind of carried us offensively and yeah she made a lot of great plays,” said McGuff. “I like the fact that she was getting open shots in her perimeter, but also scoring around the basket and getting the free throw line. So she could balance her game, but you know we’re at our best and she’s playing really aggressively.”
McMahon averaged 14 points per game entering Sunday, but in each of the first two Buckeye games it wasn’t the junior taking total control. It was freshman Jaloni Cambridge in the first game and Chance Gray’s three-point shot in the second. Even so, McMahon was steady in each outing.
All offseason, McGuff’s talked about needing more three-point support. McMahon averaged .4 made threes per game in her first two seasons. In three games this year she’s at 2.0 per game.
Another element of a young team is giving the ball away. McMahon hasn’t had a season where she hasn’t given up at least 2.5 per game. In three games this year she’s only given up four total turnovers.
Whatever the Buckeyes need right now, McMahon is there to give it. Against Charlotte Tuesday, McMahon was the one who cut through a slow period in the third quarter to get Ohio State back on the right track following a fall that left Cambridge out of the rest of the game. Without McGuff calling a timeout to get the team back on the same page.
Then, after being that consistent force for Ohio State against Belmont, the lone force through most of the contest, McMahon stepped out of the way and Cambridge used that foundation to elevate the Scarlet and Gray.
Tied at 63-63 with 13 seconds remaining, the Buckeyes’ head coach drew up a play for either Cambridge or McMahon to go for the game-winning shot. Before that, Cambridge was 1-of-9 and missed eight shots in a row, but McMahon didn’t use that fact as a way to try and win the game herself.
Cambridge took the ball, was trusted with the decision-making between herself and McMahon, and nailed a layup plus a free throw. It was three of Cambridge’s four points in the final seconds of the game.
Following the game, McMahon sat next to Cambridge with the media as both were laughing and in high spirits following the late victory.
“I think at any point any of us could have done that and we definitely showed that throughout the stretch in that fourth quarter in the last couple of minutes that anyone could have made a shot for us,” said Cambridge. “It didn’t have to just be me, but the fact that everyone in my team believed in me is just I mean I proved out there that if I need to get a bucket then I can, but it’s not just about me.”
That comment from Cambridge is indicative of everything that’s been said by McMahon and the Buckeyes this season. Regardless of the class of the player, it’s a team effort, and with McMahon laying the foundation, Ohio State has tackled its first dose of true adversity in the 2024-25 season.
Overall, Sunday was a far cry from last year’s performance for McMahon. The then-sophomore had one point against Belmont, in Columbus, in an 84-55 rout of the Bruins. What did Belmont do differently on Sunday? Was it more of a Buckeye lull or Belmont adjustments? What did McMahon see last year that made her so effective on Sunday?
“100% honest answer, I don’t remember,” said McMahon. “All I know is I had one point.”
Even if McMahon is a different player on the court this season, she’s still Cotie McMahon.