For the final time against a mid-major opponent in the regular season, Ohio State (11-0, 1-0 Big Ten) flexed its muscles in a 82-57 win over Grand Valley State (11-1, 2-0 GLIAC) on Tuesday.
The Buckeyes’ penultimate nonconference game started eerily similar to some of their other routes of inferior opponents. On one end the Buckeyes’ tenacious full-court press defense forced six turnovers in the first 4:00 and on the other end, junior forward Cotie McMahon attacked the rim on the way to 7 points in that timespan as her team grabbed a 17-2 lead.
McMahon wasn’t alone in pouring it on the Lakers’ defense, her former AAU teammate, junior guard Chance Gray made her third three-pointer of the game to give Ohio State a 20-4 lead.
Six combined points from frehsman guard Ava Watson and freshman center Elsa Lemmila helped Ohio State end the first quarter on a 9-4 scoring run, and take a 31-10 lead into the second quarter.
The Lakers strung together a few stops and created a 7-2 scoring run over 4:51, but that run was not sustained. Greene and McMahon started a 9-1 scoring run with a pair of buckets, before graduate forward Eboni Walker made a layup, and Watson drained a buzzer-beating three-pointer to cap the run and give the Buckeyes a 44-18 halftime lead.
Ohio State started the second half much like it did the first half. Gray started the half with a three-point jumper before McMahon made a transition layup. Grand Valley State made its own three-point shot, but graduate guard Madison Greene—who started in place of injured freshman guard Jaloni Cambridge—converted a three-point play with a layup and a free throw to put Ohio State up 52-21.
Despite facing a huge deficit, the Lakers kept fighting and used some strong 3-point shooting to mount a 17-7 scoring run.
The Buckeyes appeared to put the run behind them with a pair of buckets from McMahon, but the Lakers scored the last five points of the third quarter to trim Ohio State’s lead to 64-43.
Much like the third quarter, Ohio State wasn’t perfect in the final period, but its defense allowed only 14 points to secure the 25-point win.
McMahon (21 points) crossed the 20-point threshold for the third time in four games since returning from injury, she made 9-of-14 shots for a percentage of 64.3
Gray had one of her better shooting performances as a Buckeye, connecting on 8-of-14 shots (57.1 percent), including 5-of-8 from three-point range, for a team-high 23 points.
Graduate forward Ajae Petty grabbed a team-high 8 rebounds, while McMahon, Watson and senior guard Taylor Thierry all shared the team-high of 3 assists.
As a team, the Buckeyes had an efficient shooting day, making 31-of-59 shots for a percentage of 52.5. Gray’s three-point barrage helped Ohio State make 6-of-15 shots from beyond the arc as a team.
The Lakers recovered fairly well form a poor 4-of-13 shooting start in the first quarter, and ended the game shooting 20-of-57 from the field, (35.1 percent).
Senior guard Abrie Cabana was Grand Valley State’s leading scorer with 14 points after a 4-of-8 shooting performance.
