No. 9 Ohio State (16-0, 5-0 Big Ten) didn’t have its best offensive outing on the season, but a dominant second quarter was enough to fuel a 69-60 win over Oregon (12-5, 3-3 Big Ten).
The Buckeyes’ offensive issues started immediately. In the first 5:03 of the game, Ohio State made just one of its first 10 shots.
Ohio State shut down the Oregon offense in the first three minutes to take a 2-0 lead, but that lead was short-lived. The Ducks went on a 9-0 scoring run over 3:08 to take a 7-point lead. The Buckeyes had an answer with back-to-back two-point field goals from junior forward Cotie McMahon and freshman point guard Jaloni Cambridge, but their shooting woes didn’t end there.
Instead, the Buckeyes missed their next eight shots— five of which came on the same possession— before redshirt sophomore finally ended a scoring drought of more than three minutes with a layup that went in right before the end of the first quarter. Cambridge’s layup had the Buckeyes trailing 11-8 heading into the second quarter.
Oregon forward Alexis Whitfield scored four early points to push her team’s lead to 15-10 with 8:53 to go in the second quarter. After all of their struggles in the first 11 minutes of the game, the Buckeyes completely flipped the game on its head with a gargantuan 27-0 scoring run over 6:16, marked by much-improved shooting and a tenacious effort defensively with the full-court press. After making only one of her first eight shots, Jaloni Cambridge started the run with the team’s first three-point shot of the game. A steal by Kennedy Cambridge allowed senior guard Taylor Thierry to tie the game at 15 before junior guard and former Oregon transfer Chance Gray gave Ohio State its first lead of the game with an and-1 layup.
After Kennedy Cambridge and Thierry both made layups, Ajae Petty scored the next five points in the run to give Ohio State a 12-point lead. Thierry capped the monumental run with a trio of three-point shots in a span of two minutes. Thierry’s last three-point shot put her team ahead 37-15. The Ducks’ 7-0 spurt in response to the Buckeyes’ huge run did little to improve their disastrous second-quarter performance. Thierry scored her 14th and 15th points of the second quarter with two free throws right before the second-quarter buzzer to give Ohio State a 39-22 halftime advantage.
Cambridge put her inefficient scoring start behind her in the third quarter when she scored Ohio State’s first six points in the opening 2:02 of the second half. Cambridge’s fast start to the third quarter gave Ohio State a 45-25 lead, but after a Chance Gray three-point shot one possession later, Oregon cut Ohio State’s lead to 13 with a 10-2 scoring run.
Ohio State’s lead remained at 13 points with 2:41 to go after both teams traded scores, but graduate guard Madison Greene scored four points in the last 2:17, and her team entered the fourth quarter in front 60-43.
Despite being fouled, Petty made a layup on Ohio State’s first offensive possession of the fourth quarter. After Petty couldn’t connect on her free throw, the Buckeyes went on a lengthy 5:29 scoring drought, and Oregon took advantage with a 9-0 scoring run in that span. Thierry finally ended the drought with a layup to increase Ohio State’s lead to 64-52 with 4:13 to go in the fourth quarter, but Oregon scored the next four to trim the lead to eight with three minutes to go, McMahon and Petty combined for baskets on the offensive end in crunch time, and as a team, the Buckeyes honed in defensively and didn’t allow a field goal until only 49 seconds remained in the game.
The Ducks had a couple of chances to make it a two-possession game, but they missed their last four field goals of the game and the Buckeyes took home the nine-point win.
Powered by her sensational second-quarter performance, Thierry was Ohio State’s leading scorer with 19 points, on 6-of-10 shooting (60.0 percent). After first-half scoring woes, Jaloni Cambridge ended the game with 13 points, while shooting 6-of-14 (42.9 percent) on the day.
Petty had a very well-rounded performance for Ohio State. She also finished the game with 13 points and led the team 14 rebounds and four assists.
It wasn’t the best shooting performance for the Buckeyes, who made just 26-of-62 field goals (41.9 percent).
Oregon meanwhile was even more inefficient, making 23-of-63 shots (36.5 percent). The Ducks were led by redshirt guard Nani Falatea and forward Amina Muhammad, who each scored 11 points.
