Women's Basketball
Buckeyes Bow to Illinis - One and Done in Big Ten Tournament
by John Porentas

No. 1 seed Ohio State (22-8) made a quick exit from the Big Ten tournament, bowing to No. 9 seed Illinois (18-3) by a final of 64-58 in the second round of the Big Ten tournament.

The Buckeyes drew a bye on day one of the tournament by virtue of their high seed while the Illini were required to take on Wisconsin to advance to round two and meet the Buckeyes. Despite having played just 24 hours earlier, the Illini were able to do everything they needed to do to oust the Buckeyes from the tournament.

OSU entered the game boasting the Big Ten player of the year, freshman Jantel Lavender, a fact they seemed to forget at the game played out. Lavender got up just eight shots in the game, four in each half. Fellow post player Tam Riley also got up only eight shots as well. Lavender and Riley made a sizzling 75 per cent of their attempts. The Buckeyes needed more of that, but instead got a combined 29 shots from guards Ashlee Trebilcock and Marscilla Packer. Packer and Tebilcock combined for nine field goals for 31 percent shooting.

OSU Head Coach Jim Foster said after the game that he asked his team to get the ball down low to the post. It just didn't materialize.

"Yeah, it was a topic of conversation in a few timeouts," said Foster. "Early," Foster added when asked when he began talking to his team about going down low.

The Buckeyes led 28-27 at the half on the strength of a three points field goal at the buzzer by freshman guard Alison Jackson. Lavender and Riley combined for seven-of-seven shooting in the half to help keep the Buckeyes close, then Jackson's three-ball gave them the lead.

The Illini, meanwhile, were being led by guards Lori Bjork and Rebecca Harris. Bjork hit two early threes to establish a long-range threat then Harris began using the dribble drive to beat whatever Buckeye was guarding her like a drum Harris led all scorers with 10 points at the half and went on to score a game-high 22 points. OSU guard Shavelle Little, who was named the Big Ten defensive player of the year, logged just 15 minutes of playing time due to a nagging knee injury. Without Little the Buckeyes had no one who could match up with Harris and she had he way with them.

"It was more my will than anything," said Harris.

"You can play defense any day on a penetrator or a shooter but they're still going to do what they do."

Illinois Head Coach Jolette Law said that coming into the game the Illini felt the dribble drive would make a difference for them.

"We knew they couldn't guard us off the bounce. Harris can get to the basket better than most people I know, so we decided to take advantage of our strengths," said Law.

The Illini established their largest lead of the game of 11 points with 7:24 remaining, but the Buckeyes had one more run left in them. Fueled by eight quick points by Marcilla Packer the Buckeyes cut the lead to just four at 58-54 with 3:40 remaining. The Illini went back up six at 60-54, but OSU closed to within two with 11 seconds remaining on four free throws by Packer. It was as close as they could get however as Bjork and Harris each made a pair of free throws down the stretch to help seal the Illni victory.

The game was played before a sparse crowd at Conseco Field House in Indianapolis on a day on which Ohio was hit by major winter storm making travel to Indianapolis difficult.

Return to the-Ozone Columns and Features

Return to the-OZone Front Page