Women's Basketball
Buckeyes Avenge NCAA Defeat with Victory over Marist in Season Opener
By John Porentas

Things were real different on March 17, 2006 and November 11, 2007.

Last March the Buckeyes met Marist in the first round of the NCAA tournament and suffered an embarrassing upset loss at the hands of the Red Foxes, eventually succumbing by a final score of 67-63 to be one-and-done in the NCAA tournament. In that game the Buckeyes committed 23 turnovers, 11 of them by center Jessica Davenport as Marist's pressure defense made a shambles of the Buckeyes.

The Red Foxes returned four starters this season accounting for 90.5 per cent of their scoring last season and 85 per cent of their rebounding. And oh by the way, the Buckeyes and Red Foxes met in the season-opener for both teams at the Value City Arena.

It was very different this time around. OSU's starting lineup consisted of sophomore guard Shavelle Little, freshman center Jantel Lavender, senior forward Tamarah Riley, sophomore guard Ashlee Trebilcock and senior guard Marscilla Packer. Only Trebilcock and Packer started in 2006 against Marist. It was the new-look Buckeyes against the veteran Red Foxes, and this time around the Buckeyes prevailed by a final of 63-57.

The Buckeyes limited their turnovers to just 15 this time around, only five of them in first half which ended with the Buckeyes leading 34-19 on the strength of 12 first-half points by Packer and six rebounds by Lavender. OSU was efficient offensively, but it was the defense of Little, who replaced fellow sophomore Maria Moeller in the starting lineup, that made the difference. The Red Foxes were guilty of nine first half turnovers and didn't get off a single three-point attempt thanks to the defensive pressure that Little was able to apply.

"I think it was more Shavelle Little," said Marist Head Coach Brian Giorgis when asked if his team was out of synch in the first half or if the Buckeyes did something to affect them.

"She caused a lot of problems. The great thing is that the people who are going to scout us didn't see any of our offense because they wouldn't let us run any," said Giorgis.

"I liked Shavelle's defensive pressure. I always like Shavelle's defensive pressure," said OSU Head Coach Jim Foster.

"What Shavelle has done is gotten herself into shape and is in much better condition so her blips of time pressuring the ball are much more sustained. Last year she did a good job of pressuring the ball but she was in no where near the condition that she is now," said Foster.

While Little was creating defensive havoc with the Marist backcourt the Red Foxes could not duplicate the kind of turnover success they had with Davenport. Despite playing in first college game, Lavender turned the ball over just once.

"She's good. We were kind of hoping she would have a rough start," said Giorgis.

"I had butterflies but once we got defensive pressure and Shavey (Little) was playing defense so well it just wore off real quick. It was that good start we got off to that helped them go away," said Lavender.

Lavender finished with a double-double in her first collegiate game, scoring 13 points and grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds.

"Jantel is going to be a very good player," said Foster. "The thing I love about her is the amount of rebounds she goes after," Foster said.

Marist was able to close to within two with just under two minutes to play in the game when they began knocking down some threes and the Buckeye offense got a little stale, but were never able to tie the game.

"Ball movement on offense and not as much pressure on the ball from the defensive point of view," said OSU Head Coach Jim Foster of Marist's ability to close the gap in the second half. Foster attributed his team's second-half lapse to inexperience.

"I don't know if you were paying much attention, but Shavelle and Tam Riley got introduced as starters and they didn't know how to go out on the floor," said Foster, tongue firmly in cheek.

"You've got a senior and you've got a freshman and you think you've worked on just about everything and we forgot to work on the handshake, go-to-the-foul line routine," quipped Foster. "We'll have to work on that in Tuesday's practice."

Packer led all scorers with 26 points on five-of-11 shooting that included three-of-four from three point range.

"I think they saw that they had a step up player in Marscilla Packer because she just stuck shots in our face," said Giorgis. "Some of them were kind of amazing."

"I think Marscilla was really good at the end of the shot clock," said Foster. "Now if we can get her focusing on the first 25 seconds of a possession I think she's going to have a great senior year," Foster said.

Box Score

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