In the preseason, Associated Press voters left Ohio State women’s basketball off the preseason top 25. The Buckeyes were a team full of questions and a team with a massive roster overhaul. Now, in Week
10 of the 2025-26 season, the Scarlet and Gray continued to climb up the rankings and now sit at No. 14, according to Monday’s poll release.
The last week of the season was arguably the first true test for the Buckeyes. While the ranking of earlier opponents was higher, which included losses to No. 1 UConn and No. 4 UCLA, the Big Ten calendar ratcheted up in difficulty, and the Buckeyes had games against the Illinois Fighting Illini on Wednesday, a team that sat in the first spot outside of the rankings, and the No. 8 Maryland Terrapins.
While the final score of both games indicated comfortable victories for Ohio State, the true story is how the Buckeyes turned three quarters of close basketball into fourth-quarter dominance in both outings.
Against the Illini, in Champaign, Illinois, point guard Jaloni Cambridge hit an unseen level with 17 points and two assists in the fourth quarter, on the way to a career high 41 points. Then, in College Park, Maryland, on Sunday, the Scarlet and Gray shot 75% in the fourth quarter to outscore the Terps 28-17 in the final 10 minutes.
Ohio State believes that it has the ability to win in a variety of ways. On Wednesday, the Buckeyes and Illini traded the lead 16 times, and neither let up until a strong third quarter from the OSU defense, which allowed Illinois to score just 10 points in the period.
Against the Terrapins on Sunday, Ohio State was down 15 points in the first two minutes of the second quarter, but from that point on, the Buckeyes outscored Maryland 77 to 48 through the final buzzer.
With the Buckeyes’ rise in the rankings, a couple teams in the conference went the other direction. After two losses last week, including one Sunday against unranked Purdue, No. 23 Washington fell out of the rankings alongside the No. 21 USC Trojans.
Those changes give the Big Ten six teams in the top 25. Here is how the conference stands:
No. 3 UCLA Bruins
No. 8 Michigan Wolverines
No. 11 Iowa Hawkeyes
No. 12 Maryland Terrapins
No. 14 Ohio State Buckeyes
No. 15 Michigan State Spartans
No. 24 Nebraska Cornhuskers
No. 25 Illinois Fighting Illini
No. 14 is the highest ranking received by Ohio State this season and the highest since March 17, 2025, when the Scarlet and Gray sat at No. 15 and the next week lost in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament.
Now the Buckeyes leave ranked matchups for two games against winless Big Ten teams with a trip to Newark, New Jersey, for The Coretta Scott King Classic sandwiched in between. On Wednesday, the Penn State Nittany Lions head to the Schottenstein Center, followed by a ranked matchup against the No. 10 TCU Horned Frogs.
