Talk to most coaches and players and they talk about the next game. In these responses, the team never looks past the opponent it has ahead. That way the team does not overlook an opponent and get caught in a weak position. Sometimes its easier said than done. Ohio State women’s basketball was a perfect example of this on Sunday in a 91-57 win over the Mercyhurst Lakers, because four days later is a matchup against the No. 2 UConn Huskies.
Look at the Sunday victory for the Buckeyes and there is an argument
to be made of peaking ahead of the NEC side and directly at the 12-time national champions.
Ohio State began strong with an eight-point run. The Buckeyes scored 14 of the first 18 points of the game and it looked like head coach Kevin McGuff’s side was destined for another rout. Now, there is no numerical value connected to the definition of a rout, and a 34-point win sure does seem in the rout conversation, but Mercyhurst hung around more than anyone else so far in the young season.
“Not great really,” McGuff told reporters when asked about how he felt his team played in the Sunday afternoon game. “Give Mercyhurst credit. I thought they played really well, and we got off to a quick start with our press, and got a lot of quick baskets, and they hung in there, and I thought they played well throughout the game and competed.”
In the first quarter, the program out of Erie, Pennsylvania ended up with 18 points, and sat back only 11 points. Those 18 points is the most the team allowed in a quarter so far this season, all against mid-major sides. Mercyhurst only joined Division I basketball in the fall of 2024.
Now, part of that more lackadaisical than usual Ohio State performance was how Mercyhurst played. Against the UIC Flames and Central Michigan University Chippewas, both mid-majors played with speed. The Buckeyes live on speed and thrive when opponents try to speed up the pace of play. Against Central Michigan, it resulted in 44 turnovers and a wire-to-wire Ohio State victory.
Mercyhurst slowed the game down. Once they got out of the press, the Lakers did not run to the basket or pass to the corner and shoot. No, the Buckeyes had to play real half court defense, and Mercyhurst showed how passes move faster than the Buckeyes can close down shooters and shot 53.8% from the floor in the first quarter.
“They were just moving the ball really well and moving in general really well,” point guard Jaloni Cambridge told reporters. “I don’t think we were rotating the right way. So kudos to them for doing their job. I think we just needed to do a better job at what we do best, and that’s moving around, flying around.”
There were bright spots in the Buckeyes’ ability to move and control the narrative of the game. After all, it was still a comfortable Ohio State victory and guard Ava Watson deserved a lot of the credit. Watson racked up a game high seven steals, even more than the program record holder for steals in a season Kennedy Cambridge, who was second with four. Watson disrupted passing lanes, leapt and dived to earn those seven turnovers for the Buckeyes, and more that do not show up on Watson’s stat line. The junior starter led the team with a 34 plus/minus, the highest for any player on the court.
Offensively, Watson scored 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting and went 2-for-4 from beyond the arc. Watson’s play this season has helped folks forget that Chance Gray left for the professional ranks. The first year full-time starter controlled the court so far in the first three games of the season but the competition gets more difficult, and quickly.
Last season, Ohio State lost 68-100 to the UConn Huskies, in Connecticut. The Buckeyes were a younger side after Taylor Thierry, Cotie McMahon and Madison Greene left the program. Also, UConn had guard Azzi Fudd, who is now on the Dallas Wings in the WNBA. Unfortunately for the Scarlet and Gray, UConn still has National Player of the Year Sarah Strong. In that Huskies victory last year, Strong tied her career high with 29 points and added 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals and 3 blocks.
With a defeat like that, the “focus on the next game” mentality took a little bit of a back seat last week.
“We’ve already started scouting,” center Elsa Lemmilä told reporters. “Well, obviously, you don’t really need to scout UConn. We all know how they play, but yeah, this is one of the biggest games of the [non conference], so we have a lot of buzz around it going on in practice. It’s always in the back of your mind.”
Both McGuff and Jaloni Cambridge are positive that the Buckeyes will have a better go of it this season. As Lemmilä said, the work has already begun to prepare and now the team has one more year together. There will be eight players on the Ohio State roster on Thursday that were present for the lopsided UConn defeat. Something like that leaves a sour taste in an athlete’s mouth.
Lemmilä is part of the reason why Ohio State has a stronger case at competing with head coach Geno Auriemma’s side this time around. Last season, Lemmilä started against UConn but it was her last game start before she missed a short period of time to recover from injury. On top of that, the Finnish center was not healthy to start the year anyway after she missed most of the summer with two lower body surgeries.
This season, a healthy Lemmilä is quick, gets to open space and is scoring consistently. How consistent? The starting big missed only one shot in three games. Sunday it was a 7-for-7 performance and a team high 19 points. Add the junior’s 12 rebounds and Lemmilä had her ninth career double-double at Ohio State.
“I think she’s [Lemmilä] playing with a lot of confidence, and that goes back to the summer that she had,” said McGuff. “She’s getting the ball around the basket in good position. I think her teammates are helping her and getting her the ball. And you saw her make a three today, which was which looked good. And we want her to shoot down when she’s open, that wide open.”
Cambridge went a step further and said that she should have been taking threes like Lemmilä did on Sunday. The 6’6 center received a pass at the top of the arc and drained the shot, nothing but net. Freshman forward Sydney Mobley did the same when the 17-year old made one from deep from the corner. It was part of her third consecutive double-digit performance to start her college career. The last person to score double-digits in their first three college games at Ohio State was program legend and current WNBA star Kelsey Mitchell.
All of the stellar play added on top of what the Buckeyes already had in Jaloni Cambridge. The junior scored 17 points on Sunday and had seven assists, which the guard credited to all of her teammates. Granted the competition is not up to the same level as Ohio State, but six Buckeyes scored in double figures today, which included all starters. It is no longer a side that gives the ball to Jaloni Cambridge and watch her work. The team is different this year as it was at this point last year — on the doorstep of an early season matchup against the UConn Huskies.
“I think because we have so many returners, we are further along, and that’s definitely something we’re holding onto coming going into this game,” said Lemmilä. “We know how each other play. We can play well with each other, and we will have a better game this year.”
