Women's Basketball
Buckeyes Lacking a Little in Road Loss to Hoosiers
By John Porentas

The box score will show that Indiana Hoosiers (16-12, 9-7 Big Ten) won a hard-fought overtime game against No. 20 Ohio State (20-7, 11-5 Big Ten) by a final of 69-61. The Hoosiers won it in overtime, but the outcome was largely determined just under two minutes into the game when starting point guard Shavelle Little went to the bench, he ailing knee acting up.

"It was bothering her," explained OSU Head Coach Jim Foster. "When she's right she brings us defensive intensity and I think she took pretty good care of the ball. We lose the start of our defense, the pressure," Foster said.

Little's ailing knee kept her out of most of the first half, she logged just seven minutes, but the Hoosiers could not capitalize, partly because Indiana was stone cold from the field, shooting just under 26 percent from the field, and partly because OSU senior forward Tam Riley put the Buckeyes on her back and carried them.

Riley's play was borderline heroic, because not only was Little on the bench for much of the first half, but a couple of other Buckeyes who have been very reliable for OSU were taken out of the game by the Hoosiers. Indiana geared its defense toward slowing down freshman center Jantel Lavender and senior shooting guard Marscilla Packer and to a large degree was successful. In addition, Ashlee Trebilcock was held scoreless in the first half, but the Buckeyes still had Riley. Riley had seven points and 10 rebounds in 17 minutes of play in the first half to help the Buckeyes stay close at 26-25 at the intermission.

"If Tam wasn't here tonight this game would have been a blowout. She kept us in the game," said Foster.

"In the back of our minds we felt that if she (Lavender) had a great game, that if we kept 22 (Riley) and 42 (Lavender) down we didn't know if she (Riley) could win the game for them," said Indiana Head Coach Felisha Legette-Jack.

"Kind of pick your poison."

"Jantel (Lavender) struggled for the first time this year and Tam was there to pick up a lot of what was left."

Little was able to return to the floor to start the second half, and it looked like the Buckeyes would take over the game. OSU went up by 10 when Trebilcock hit a three after a steal by Little and eventually built a lead of 12.

The Buckeyes were still leading by eight when Little went back out of the game with 11:30 remaining. With Little on the bench the Hoosiers were able to claw their way back into the game and eventually tie it at 52 apiece with 2:38 remaining. Little re-entered the game at that point, but the damage was done. The Hoosiers had seized the momentum largely behind play of guard Jamie Braun. With Little on the bench the Buckeyes had no answer for Braun who scored a game-high 19 points, 13 of them after the halftime intermission.

"I think they really took it to our guards (during the late-game run)," said Foster.

"They beat us off the dribble. I thought their guards played very well."

Indiana's late second-half rally was also aided by a controversial call on the play that tied the game. With the Buckeyes still leading by one at 52-51, Indiana's Whitney Thomas was fouled with 2:38 remaining and went to the line with a one and one. Thomas made the free throw, but the officials ruled there was a lane violation on the play, nullifying the shot and therefore did not award her a second shot. The Buckeyes inbounded the ball after the call, but the point was allowed to remain on the scoreboard to tie the game.

"I don't think those two who were up top were allowed to come into the area they came into when they came into it," said Foster trying to explain the call.

The play not only tied the score, but also helped determine the eventual outcome of the overtime. Riley fouled out of the game on that play and was not available down the stretch in regulation and in the overtime.

"I think it (her absence) hurt considerably because she was a consistent player out there," said Foster.

The loss drops Ohio State into a first-place tie with Iowa in the Big Ten standings and a half game ahead of third-place Purdue. The Boilermakers have six losses in league play, the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes five. Ohio State and Iowa each have two regular-season games remaining on their schedules, the Boilermakers one. OSU travels to Penn State and then closes out the season at home against Northwestern. Iowa has a home game remaining against Northwestern and then travels to Wisconsin to close out their season.

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