Women's Basketball
Buckeyes Suffer NCAA First-Round Upset for Second-Straight Season
By John Porentas

For the second-straight year the Buckeyes exited the NCAA tournament in the first round, this time losing to Florida State (19-13) by a final of 60-49 in a game that the Seminoles controlled from start to finish. Save for one run in the second half to close to within four, the Buckeyes were never really in the game. That's a bit ironic, since it was the Seminoles who some people questioned as deserving to be in the game. They were one of the last teams included in the field of 64, but proved against the Buckeyes that they belonged.

"From warmups we came in with the mindset that we were going to take this game away from them and show we deserved to be in the tournament, and that's what we did, we played hard for 40 minutes, so we deserved it," said FSU forward Jacinta Monroe.

The Seminoles played like they were on a mission, and more than anything it was their determined play that determined the outcome of the game. The teams were fairly even shooting the basketball and executing their respective offenses and defenses, but when it came to the hustle plays the Seminoles made them, the Buckeye didn't. They simply wanted it more. That in turn showed up in one glaring spot in the box score, the rebounding numbers.

FSU destroyed OSU on the glass, outrebounding them 49-35 and coming up with a whopping 19 offensive rebounds. When the Seminoles weren't outfighting the Buckeyes on the glass, they were out hustling them for loose balls. Many of their offensive boards came on long rebounds where they simply got to the ball quicker than the Buckeyes. As a result, the Seminoles got up 67 shots in the game to OSU's 57, and that spelled victory for FSU and a loss for OSU.

"Nineteen offensive rebounds, I think that's where their quickness showed itself and manifested itself for them," said OSU Head Coach Jim Foster.

FSU was led by the scoring of guard Tenae Davis-Cain. Davis-Cain was red-hot from long range and dropped 27 points on the Buckeyes. Fifteen of those points came on five-of-nine shooting from beyond the three point arc.

"They were playing extremely off me," said Davis-Cain.

"I thought they would be in my grill all the time but they were playing off and sagging back so just decided to shoot and they were going in so I continued."

OSU had no answer defensively for Davis-Cain. Offensively, freshman center Jantel Lavender had 21 points. Her double-digit effort was her 31st double-digit game in OSU's 31-game season. Senior guard Marscilla Packer added 13.

The Seminoles bolted out to a 9-0 lead and led by as many as 20 in the second half. A late OSU run cut that lead to four, but that was as close as the Buckeyes would get.

"We knew that they were going to make a run," said FSU guard Mara Freshour.

"It’s rare for any team to blow out another when the seeds are this close. We were prepared for that. It was surprising that they took their time (while) they were making their comeback.”

The loss was disappointing for the Buckeyes, especially following their early out last year and their first-round exit from the Big Ten tournament this season. The Buckeyes were at a loss to explain yet another early post-season failure.

"“I’d just say we weren’t playing together. We weren’t playing our game. Everybody didn’t come out ready," attempted senior forward Tam Riley.

OSU finishes the season with an overall record of 22-9. The Buckeyes also captured their third-straight Big Ten regular-season championship.

Box Score

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