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Women's Basketball
No. 12 Buckeyes Remain Undefeated with Lopsided Win
By Ben Axelrod

Playing in the second of two games sandwiched in-between major conference opponents, the No. 12 Ohio State women’s basketball team (9-0) looked anything but one that was looking ahead to Saturday’s match-up with California. The Buckeyes defeated Southern University (1-5), 83-49, on Tuesday night at the Schottenstein Center.

Taylor Hill
Photo by Jim Davidson

Much like it did against Canisius on Saturday, the Buckeyes took advantage of their outmatched mid-major opponent. OSU forced 18 turnovers and outran Southern to 18 fast break points, while holding the Jaguars to 31.7 percent shooting from the field.

“It’s a sign of growth that they can understand that you have a game and you need to play hard,” OSU coach Jim Foster said. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing against. I think these players, for the most part, get that.”

The Jaguars seemed poised to contend with OSU early. The Buckeyes never extended their lead past six points through the first five minutes of the game before OSU guard Tayler Hill helped fuel a 16-6 run to give the Buckeyes a lead they would never look back from. Hill led all scorers with 21 points in addition to tallying five steals and four assists.

The Buckeyes converted their mid-first half run into a 44-24 halftime lead over the Jaguars, after Hill found freshman guard Maleeka Kynard for a fast break lay-up with 21 seconds left before intermission.

OSU used the second half as a platform to extend its lead, doing so by as many as 34 points by the time the final buzzer sounded.

Samantha Prahalis
Photo by Jim Davidson

Following the first five minutes of closer-than-expected action, the only source of drama the Schottenstein Center crowd saw came at the 17:29 mark of the second half when preseason Big Ten co-player of the year Samantha Prahalis fell to the ground clutching her ankle after it appeared she was inadvertently tripped by an opponent.

Fewer than three minutes after walking back to the locker rooms under her own power, Prahalis returned to the game without showing any ill-effects from the fall.

“I’m fine. My ankle went a weird way, but I’m fine,” Prahalis said after the game. “It’s all good.”

Prahalis totaled 17 points and added seven assists. She joined Hill and sophomore forward Darryce Moore (12 points, six rebounds) as the only Buckeyes to reach in double-digits on Tuesday. Foster said that he was pleased with Moore’s performance in the absence of freshman forward Kalpana Beach, who missed the game with an injury.

“Darryce is a pretty good player,” Foster said. “I’m sure that will help Beach’s return. When you look out there, and you’re not out there, and there’s pretty good players out there, you get better quickly.”

OSU held Southern’s leading scorer on the season, Adrian Sanders, to  four points through the first 38 minutes of play before Sanders hit a pair of late 3-point shots with the game well out of contention. Kendra Coleman led the Jaguars in scoring with 14 points.

The win advances the Buckeyes to 9-0, the best opening to a season in Foster’s 10 years at OSU. After the game, Foster said that he doesn’t put much stock in the most impressive start of his OSU tenure.

“There’s too many award shows, there’s too many awards,” Foster said. “Do your job. And the byproduct of the job is sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. I feel a lot better about this team than I did a year ago.”

The Buckeyes return to action on Saturday when they’ll travel to Berkeley, Calif. to face California, who received the most votes of any unranked team in the most recent Associated Press poll. Despite facing a higher profile opponent on Saturday it has in its past two games, Prahalis said OSU’s preparation for the Bears won’t change.

“We just got to play,” Prahalis said. “We should be, you know, focused here and focused then.”

Box Score
Season Stats Year to Date
Photo Coverage
First Thoughts by Tony Gerdeman

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