Women's Basketball
Lavender Makes Lions Blue with Stellar Play to Key OSU Win in Stretch of Title Run
By John Porentas

With two key veterans less-than 100 percent Ohio State (21-7, 12-5 Big Ten) turned toward its youth against Penn State (13-16, 4-13 Big Ten), and the youth delivered allowing the Buckeyes to take a hard-fought 86-83 road win and remain atop the Big Ten Standings with just one game remaining on the regular-season schedule.

OSU Guards Shavelle Little and Ashlee Trebilcock are both nursing injuries, and both have been key contributors to OSU's season. Head Coach Jim Foster tried to change things up to allow his two injured players to be on the court, most notably most notably on the defensive end of the court. That seemed like a good idea, particularly since the Nittany Lions have had problems shooting the basketball of late. Sometimes, however, good ideas go awry.

"Shavelle and Ashley are both really banged up," said OSU Head Coach Jim Foster.

"They tried to go and they really couldn't so we had to play zone.

"I was reading the woes of the Penn State local writers of the Penn State shooting and I knew that when we were sitting in that zone they were going to get better, but that's what we had to play."

Penn State is near the bottom of the Big Ten in shooting percentage at just under 40 percent, but against OSU's zone were able to improve that considerably, knocking down just under 48 percent of their attempts to stay in the game against OSU's gimpy defense.

With both Trebilcock and Little sub par Foster looked to his freshman class and got an enormous contribution from center Jantel Lavender. Lavender scored a game-high and career-high 36 points while grabbing 16 rebounds and dishing out six assists against the Lions.

"We just struggled to guard her," said Penn State Head Coach Coquese Washington.

"She's just really a tough matchup for us. Other teams have been able to do different things, but she's a really hard matchup for us. . She's just really a tough matchup for us. Other teams have been able to do different things, but she's a really hard matchup for us. We could guard her one on one and when we tried to double her she made plays," Washington said.

Lavender was able to find operating room in Penn State's zone defense and took full advantage when she did.

"I think my opportunities were there because I went to the open spots in the zone and took my time with my opportunities," said Lavender.

"I think taking my time overall was a big thing overall for me today because sometimes I rush my shots.

Our zone movement (on offense) was making me a open a lot more. That really helped me a lot this game," Lavender said.

With the injured pair of Trebilcock and Little combining to go 0-7 from the field, Lavender's offense was just what the Buckeyes needed against the rediscovered shooting touch of Penn State. When she wasn't scoring the ball she was finding open teammates, often for open threes. Maria Moeller got three wide open looks from three and made all three to score a career-high 11 points.

Lavender's heroics kept OSU in the lead most the way but Penn State remained in the game right down to the wire.

"It's always hard to play here. Every game I've played here has been a fight," said OSU senior guard Marscilla Packer whose 18 points was second-high for the Buckeyes.

OSU got a boost over the last few minutes of play from another freshman, guard Alison Jackson, who came on to score two key baskets in the last four minutes of play to help the Buckeyes hold of a late charge by Penn State.

"I think Alison Jackson sort of stabilized us and made some big baskets," said Foster.

"I thought our young kids did a really good job today in a situation where we really needed them to step up. We had a lot of people do good things."

With the win Ohio State remains atop the Big Ten standings, tied with Iowa at 12-5 in league play. OSU will close out its regular-season schedule with a home date with Northwestern on Sunday. A win over Northwestern will guarantee OSU no worse than a tie for the Big Ten regular-season championship. It would also guarantee OSU a number one seed in the Big Ten tournament since the Buckeyes own the tie breaker over the Hawkeyes with two wins in the two head-to-head meetings between the two teams. Northwestern is winless in Big Ten play this season and will finish last in the league.

Iowa closes out its regular-season schedule on the road vs. Wisconsin on Sunday. Should OSU win against Northwestern and Iowa lose vs. Wisconsin the Buckeyes would be outright Big Ten champs.

OSU has a current streak of three-consecutive Big Ten regular-season championships.

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