Buckeyes Fall on the Road at No. 25 Iowa 103-89

Jan. 25, 2018

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IOWA CITY, Iowa – Stephanie Mavunga and Linnae Harper recorded double-doubles and Kelsey Mitchell scored 27 points but the Buckeyes just weren’t able to get over the hump and would fall on the road at No. 25 Iowa 103-89 on Thursday night.

Mavunga battled foul trouble most of the night and finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out early in the fourth quarter. Harper scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to go along with four steals.

The billing coming into the game was the battle between the top two scorers in the conference in Mitchell and Megan Gustafson and both players lived up to the hype. Mitchell scored 27 points and made three shots from long range while Gustafson notched a game-high 29 points on 11-of-14 from the foul line.

Senior Asia Doss was 6-of-9 shooting and finished with 14 points, three steals and two assists. Makayla Waterman also gave the Buckeyes good minutes, finishing with seven points and six rebounds but she too fouled-out midway through the fourth.

In addition to Gustafson, Kathleen Doyle scored 25 points on 4-of-8 from distance and all four seemed to come at key moments.

As was the case against Maryland on Monday, the Buckeyes got in an early hole, trailing 20-6 midway through the first quarter. But OSU battled back behind threes from Mitchell and Waterman and good free throw shooting to close to within five at the end of one. The Hawkeyes led by seven for most of the second quarter and after beating the buzzer for the second-straight quarter, Iowa led 53-44 at the break.

The lead swelled to as many as 14 once again early in the third but again the Buckeyes clawed back, this time to within two. Iowa had an answer every time and Doyle beat the buzzer with a three for the third time in the game and the lead was eight, 77-69.

The Buckeyes weren’t able to get any closer than five in the final quarter as Iowa answered every run.

Notes

• Kelsey Mitchell now has 3,075 points in her career which puts her in 8^th place all time. Mitchell is now 18 from tying Minnesota’s Rachel Banham for the most points in Big Ten history.
• This was Stephanie Mavunga’s 10^th double-double of the season and the 56^th of her career
• Linnae Harper notched her seventh double-double and 19^th of her career
• This was the fifth time this season that Mavunga and Harper each had a double-double in the same game
• Harper has scored in double-figures in all 21 games this season
• This was Asia Doss’ second-straight game of more than 10 points and her most points since also scoring 14 at Florida on Dec. 6
• Ohio State limited Megan Gustafson to a season-low five rebounds and this was just her second game this season in which she didn’t record a double-double
• The Buckeyes made a season-low five three-pointers
• This was the third-straight game that a Buckeye opponent shot over 50 percent

Up Next
Ohio State returns home to finish up its stretch of three games in five days when it hosts Michigan State on Saturday, Jan. 27 at Noon. The game will be televised on ESPNU.