Women's Basketball
Buckeyes Improvise for Decisive Win over Northwestern
By John Porentas

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but when necessity arose for OSU Head Coach Jim Foster, he didn't have to re-invent the wheel.

OSU (13-3, 4-1 Big Ten) found out just before the start of their game with Northwestern (4-13, 0-5 Big Ten) that they would be without the services of starting point guard Shavelle Little and reserve center Andrea Walker. That necessitated a bit of juggling in OSU's combinations that would be on the floor. Foster, however, didn't have to do a whole lot of thinking about it, because the Buckeyes have been juggling combinations all year in practice sessions, and against the Wildcats it paid off to the tune of a 77-55 Big Ten win.

"Without a doubt," said Foster when asked if the mix and match practice sessions were a factor in the outcome of the game.

"We change the look every day in practice. It's a different combination of players every day. That's nothing unique for us."

When the final horn sounded the Wildcats hadn't been able to capitalize on OSU's shortened bench, but they made a great stab at it in the first half. Northwestern opened the game by making 14 of their first 16 field goal attempts to open a 10 point lead at 28-18 with 7:41 remaining in the first half.

"They came out on fire," said OSU senior point guard Marscilla Packer.

The Wildcats were unable to maintain that .875 shooting clip from the field. When their shooting percentage came back to something resembling reality, the Buckeyes took over.

Ohio State outscored the Wildcats by 15 over the last 7:41 of the half to take a five point lead at the intermission. The OSU rally was sparked by the play of little-used freshman guard Alison Jackson. The Chicago-area native came off the bench to help turn things around for OSU at both ends of the court.

"Not only her offense but her defense, she came in and pressured the ball," said Packer.

"We should play in Chicago every day. That was good to have her. She stepped up big today," Packer said.

"I think she came in and had an excellent defensive effort," agreed freshman center Jantel Lavender.

"She came in and gave us that spark off the bench that we needed at the guard position and just pressured them down the floor, then the scoring came with that. We needed that today."

The Buckeyes served notice when the second half began that they were serious about turning the game around. Northwestern's first possession lasted 40 seconds due to a kicked ball but the Buckeyes were still able to force a shot clock violation. On OSU's ensuing possession Tam Riley got a determined offensive rebound to make sure the Buckeyes scored on their first opportunity of the half.

"We came out running, we came out with tempo, we came out more ready to play than we did in the first half," said Lavender.

"We came out with the attitude that we've got to play with fire every time. We came out to get stops."

OSU did just that, holding the Wildcats to .323 shooting from the field after the intermission after Northwestern shot .542 in the first half.

Despite being without the services of Little and Walker OSU was able to open a lead of as many as 26 points in the second half. The key to OSU's win was the length of their bench. OSU's bench outscored Northwestern's 30-2. The Buckeyes brought waves of players who meshed well together and simply ground down the Wildcats.

"I think we were spent," said Northwestern Head Coach Beth Combs of the differences between the two halves.

"They're a great team because they have five players that they play, that play 30 minutes a game, then they have seven players that know their roles, that come in and usually average two to four minutes a game that give them just enough of a blow, just enough of a break that they can regroup and get their horses back on the floor," Combs said.

Packer was OSU's leading scorer with 18 points. She was four of seven from three point range. Lavender added 15 points and 12 rebounds and Jackson 11 points in just 21 minutes of play.

Northwestern's Amy Jaeschke led all scorers with 24 points. Meshia Reed added 11 for the wildcats.

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