In a back-and-forth battle on the road against a quality opponent, Ohio State received just enough offensive fireworks from senior guard Taylor Thierry to outlast Nebraska 72-66 on Sunday afternoon.
Ohio State struggled early on defensively in the first quarter. The Buckeyes gave up a trio of three-point shots in the first 4:18 to fall behind 13-7. The Buckeyes battled back from the deficit at the end of the first quarter with some points from bench contributors like graduate guard Madison Greene, freshman center Elsa Lemmila and graduate forward Eboni Walker, and trailed only 21-17 heading into the second quarter.
The Buckeyes’ defense held the Cornhuskers scoreless in the first 2:52 of the second quarter and scored the first five points to take a 22-21 advantage.
The Cornhuskers countered with their own 8-0 spurt to lead 29-22, but the Buckeyes got right back in the game with a pair of three-point shots from senior guard Taylor Thierry and Greene.
A scoring drought from 3:53 to 1:39 held the Buckeyes back from taking a lead into the locker room, but after scoring six points in the last 1:38, head coach Kevin McGuff’s squad only trailed 38-36 at the midway point.
The Buckeyes tied the games four times in the third quarter before ultimately taking the lead from a layup by junior forward Cotie McMahon. McMahon’s layup gave the Buckeyes their first lead of the game by a score of 52-50 at the 4:45 mark of the third quarter. Even after the lead changed again following a triple by the Huskers, Thierry provided a response with her own make from beyond the arc.
It wasn’t quite as large of a third-quarter run as they had in their previous win over Maryland, but the Buckeyes scored the next six points following Thierry’s triple to extend the lead to 61-53 with 30 seconds to go in the third quarter.
The Buckeyes couldn’t maintain their offensive rhythm in the fourth quarter. After scoring 25 points in the third quarter, Ohio State scored only four points in the first five minutes of the final frame. When they needed to the most, the Buckeyes dug deep defensively and held the Cornhuskers to an even worse 1-of-7 shooting start.
Ohio State’s lockdown defense was eventually broken. Nebraska made a three-point jumper on one end before forcing a stop on the other end and converted an old-fashioned three-point play to shrink the Buckeyes’ lead to 65-63.
Nebraska had a chance to tie the game at 65 with a pair of free throws on its next offensive possession but junior guard Callin Hake only made one. Clinging on to the one-point lead, Thierry hit a clutch three-point shot at the 1:58 mark. Nebraska answered with a layup from Alexis Markowski, but after redshirt sophomore guard Kennedy Cambridge missed her three-point shot, Ohio State got a crucial stop to get the ball back up two with 34 seconds to go.
The Cornhuskers were forced to foul and Greene stepped up to the line to make two vital free throws and extended the lead to two possessions with 23 seconds left.Thierry only needed 10 shots to score her career-high and game-high 23 points. Her incredibly efficient performance included eight total field goals made, five of which were three-point shots. McMahon was much less efficient making 6-of-17 field goals, but she still was the team’s second-leading scorer with 15 points. McMahon also led the team with 10 rebounds and tacked on three assists.
Nebraska only shot 25-of-66 from the field (37.9 percent), but Markowski nearly managed to carry her team to victory. She led the team with 18 points while making 8-of-15 shot attempts.
