Sunday afternoon in Hartford, Connecticut, Ohio State women’s basketball was humbled by the reigning, 12-time, national championship winning UConn Huskies. The Buckeyes could not stop forward Sarah Strong who had 29 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals and 3 steals in the 100-68 UConn victory.
The most successful period for the Buckeyes came in the first 10 minutes. After the Huskies raised their 12th championship banner, the young Ohio State team came out calm, poised and hit shots with frequency.
The Scarlet and Gray hit 6-of-7 to start and 10-0f-15 in the first quarter.
It was a far cry from the 23.3% deep shooting that the Buckeyes carried into the weekend matchup against the No. 1 ranked team in the country. Redshirt junior guard Kennedy Cambridge led the way with nine points on perfect 3-of-3 shooting in the first 10 minutes.
However, for how strong the offense played in the opening quarter, defensively the Buckeyes had no way to stop UConn’s Strong.
Despite matching up height-wise with Strong and former Wisconsin forward Serah Williams, the two experienced bigs exposed the young pair. After Ohio State kept within a possession of UConn at the end of the first quarter, the Huskies held the Buckeyes to six second quarter points in a 23-6 quarter.
Strong’s combination of speed, size and shooting cut through the Ohio State half-court zone. When UConn hit enough passes, they could find Strong either in the paint in a one-on-one or wide open from beyond the arc and the Big East Preseason Player of the Year hit 70.5% of her shots.
UConn carried a 50-30 lead into halftime. Out of the locker room, there were not defensive adjustments for the Buckeyes. Instead, Strong and guard Azzi Fudd went on a quick six-point run to make the climb even higher for the Scarlet and Gray.
The lead continued to grow for UConn until Strong went to the bench. With a candidate for National Player of the Year getting rest, Ohio State outscored the Huskies 13-2. That cut the Huskies’ lead down to 21 points and head coach Geno Auriemma quickly squashed any Buckeye hope and put Strong back into the game.
Immediately, Strong hit a layup and free throw to start a 10-point run for the Huskies.
There were attempts to change how the team played Strong. For a brief period of the game, the Buckeyes did what they could to stop the ball from getting to the forward in the first place. That was short-lived and Strong went from big to point guard and found teammates through quarterback passes in the fast break and offloading the ball in the half-court.
Strong hit career highs in points and assists in the victory.
A silver-lining for Ohio State came in the paint with the play of Kitts. After initial struggles for the redshirt freshman, McGuff kept her in the game and as time went on, Kitts improved. The forward had 10 rebounds in the defeat with three blocks. Of the five starters, Kitts had the best plus/minus with -23. Offensively, point guard Jaloni Cambridge led the Buckeyes with 17 points.
Defensively, the press never got going for the Buckeyes. In the first half, it produced a lone steal by Kennedy Cambridge, and that was in the waning minutes of the second quarter. Ohio State ended the game with six steals, compared to 14 for UConn.
What’s Next
Ohio State is back in Columbus on Wednesday to face the Kent State Golden Flashes. The Buckeyes are 12-3 all-time against the in-state side from Northeast Ohio, and have 12 wins in a row.
