Women's Basketball
Buckeyes Learn Hard Lesson in Loss to Duke
By John PorentasNo. 3 Ohio State found out that talent isn't all it takes to win when playing high level competition, and the lesson came at the cost of a loss to No. 11/12 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The short version of the story is that the Blue Devils simply took it to the Buckeyes and wanted to win the game more than OSU did.
"I think they came at us, they came at us with an attitude like 'We're winning this game' and for whatever reason we didn't come back at them," said OSU sophomore point guard Samantha Prahalis.
Duke's mental toughness translated into determined, physical play that allowed them to dictate how the game was played. That was true when the starters from both teams were on the floor, and even more true when each team went to the bench. The Blue Devils got a whopping 28 points from their subs, the Buckeyes just two.
"I think we didn't react well to their physical play. I think their bench really helped them and lifted them and we didn't get any productivity out of ours," said OSU Head Coach Jim Foster.
"I think they came after us and we didn't respond. We turned it into a jump shooting contest."
OSU's was unable to match Duke's intensity, and according to Foster, that was true even before the game tipped off. Foster said his team simply failed to prepare properly for the level of competition the Devils presented.
"We were playing against a left-handed kid and we were playing her straight up for three possession in a row and she scores six points before we make any kind of adjustment," said Foster.
"The scouting report is there. You know she's good to turn over one shoulder, and you're playing her like she can go over both," Foster said.
"We just didn't do a good job of paying attention to the details today," Foster said.
Foster was not happy with his team's mental approach, but was not discouraged by the physical matchups.
"We outrebounded them, we just made some fundamental mistakes, and they play a nice matchup zone. We didn't get into the gaps the way we should have," he said.
Despite OSU's rebounding advantage Duke outscored OSU 46-10 in the paint, 18 of those points in the paint coming as fast break points. The Buckeyes turned the ball over 21 times to just 11 for Duke and the Blue Devils took full advantage. Duke scored 27 points off turnovers, OSU just nine.
OSU's Jantel Lavender scored a team high 20 points and pulled down a game-high 18 rebounds, but it was not enough to offset OSU's turnover woes and lack of shooting touch. The Buckeyes shot just 36 percent from field while Duke was knocking down 50 percent of their field goal attempts.
The Buckeyes led briefly early in the second half but Duke went on a 24-8 run fueled by Buckeye turnovers and baskets by Duke in the paint to put the game out of reach. Duke's second half outburst was keyed by guard Jasmine Thomas who scored 24 of her game-high 29 points in the second half.
Four Buckeyes reached double figures in scoring. Tayler Hill scored 13 points, Brittany Johnson and Sarah Schulze had 11 apiece and Samantha Prahalis finished with 10 points for the Buckeyes, but it wasn't nearly enough to offset the play of Thomas and the rest of the Blue Devils. Prahalis played most of the second half with four fouls and eventually fouled out of the game.
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