Ohio State
20-11,11-7Big Ten
Iowa **
23-7,14-4Big Ten
Fast Start Propels Buckeyes to Romp of #19 Iowa
3/6/2020 11:17:11 PM | Women's Basketball
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Whew! Right from the jump, Ohio State was hitting on all cylinders and before No. 19 Iowa knew it, the Buckeyes were on a 19-0 run and well on their way to an 87-66 blowout victory in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament Friday night.
The Buckeyes hit six of their first seven threes in the first quarter to jump out to a 20-point lead just seven minutes into the game. The rout was on and it continued the rest of the way. Iowa never got closer than 12 and the Buckeyes played the entire second half with a 20+ point lead.
The win was the 20th of the season for Ohio State which advances to face rival Michigan on Saturday evening in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals.
Just like on Thursday night, the Buckeyes got contributions from everyone. Freshman Kierstan Bell connected on her first three three-point attempts and finished the game with four to lead the team with 16 points.
Junior Braxtin Miller scored 15 points, had four assists and four steals one night after having eight against Minnesota. Sophomore Dorka Juhasz notched another double-double with 15 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks.
Jacy Sheldon backed-up a 15-point effort on Thursday with 14 points, five rebounds and three assists on Friday. Fellow freshman Madison Greene also had 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting and 3-of-3 from long range.
Janai Crooms has put together back-to-back solid games this tournament. She was 4-of-6 shooting to finish with nine points and led the team with six assists.
Aaliyah Patty briefly left the game with a slight injury but returned to finish with four points and four rebounds. Freshman Aixa Wone Aranaz grabbed three rebounds and knocked-down a pair of free throws to round out the scoring.
Iowa was out of sorts all evening as the Hawkeyes shot just 34 percent. Big Ten Player of the Year Kathleen Doyle finished with just 16 points and was forced into six turnovers.
The Buckeyes ended up shooting 50 percent for the game and made 11-of-27 three-point attempts.
Head coach Kevin McGuff could not have asked for a better start to the game as the Buckeyes made 6-of-8 threes and 10 of their first 12 shots to race out to a 19-0 run and ultimately a 25-5 lead. The shooting slowed a bit but OSU still led 29-14 at the end of the first. Bell had 11 points in the quarter and the Buckeyes assisted on nine of 10 makes.
Iowa got as close as 13 points in the second quarter but the Buckeyes answered when they needed to and led 48-31 at the break. OSU made eight threes and shot 63 percent in the opening half.
The second half started out the same way as Sheldon and Greene each hit threes on the Buckeyes’ first two possessions forcing an Iowa timeout. The lead climbed to as many as 34 points as the Buckeyes were thoroughly dominant and Iowa couldn’t muster any offense.
#GoBucks
