How Cotie McMahon was the difference in Ohio State's win over Caitlin Clark and No. 2 Iowa

Sitting in the Value City Arena press conference room with stat sheet in hand, Iowa's Caitlin Clark looked over the numbers from Ohio State's 100-92 overtime victory over the Hawkeyes on Sunday.

Despite Clark's 45-point effort, there were multiple areas of the game where Ohio State got the better of Iowa. None were more impactful than the performance of sophomore Cotie McMahon, who finished with a career-high 33 points, 12 rebounds and two blocked shots.

Those numbers on the stat sheet tell only part of the story. Being a quick and physical player whom Hawkeyes coach Lisa Bluder said was "really, really hard to defend," there were other reasons to consider this the best outing in McMahon's young college career.

"She's such a unique player because she, unlike most people in women's basketball, can play through contact," Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said. "Sometimes, she's not going to get all the calls that other people are going to get because it just doesn't look the same because she's playing through the contact."

Crediting McMahon on her ability to maintain her composure during the biggest game of the season, McGuff described a determined player who never stopped taking the ball to the basket, even when it was obvious both she and her coach felt there were missed calls.

That mentality paid off, and McMahon started to see more calls go her way, especially toward the end of the game. Of the 10 fouls she drew, four where on made baskets, and they led to her completing three-point plays.

"It's like an out-of-body experience. ... I feel like an 'and-one' is the best thing in the world," McMahon said. "Especially when you have this kind of crowd, it's just like, everyone is rooting for you. You make the bucket and you get the foul, that's LeBron (James) stuff right there."

McMahon had stretches Sunday when she took control of the Buckeyes' offense, including scoring all of Ohio State's points during the Buckeyes' 6-2 run to open overtime.

Looking at her opponent's stat line, Clark also recalled a specific point in the game with 1:06 left in regulation when Iowa could have closed out the matchup if they'd kept the ball out of McMahon's hands.

"All we had to do was come up with one defensive rebound and I think we would have had the game won," Clark said. "We had it, gets tipped around, ends up in Cotie's hands and she gets an and-one."

Sophomore slump turnaround

McMahon had reached a turning point in the season after hitting a sophomore slump.

Following a 27-point performance against Penn State on Dec. 10, McMahon had a stretch through the end of the month when she seemed to be shut down.

In the Buckeyes' final four games of December, her average points per game fell from 16.9 to 13.2 and she grabbed only 12 boards combined. There were also multiple occasions McMahon found herself in early foul trouble due to offensive fouls.

"She was kind of in a little bit of a funk there. She wasn't playing real well," McGuff said. "She has practiced extremely hard and extremely well every single day since we came out of Christmas break, and so I'm really happy to see her be able to apply that to the game today. She was just so effective around the rim."

Having earned the title of Big Ten Freshman of the Year last season and being one of the driving forces in Ohio State's postseason run to the Elite Eight, McMahon has proven she can be the difference maker in big games.

But the corollary is that one common theme in Ohio State's three losses this season is McMahon struggling. Her best performance in those defeats came against UCLA, when she scored 7 points and grabbed five rebounds. In the Dec. 30 loss to Michigan, she didn't record a rebound.

"She's come a long way," teammate Jacy Sheldon said. "She had a heck of a game today and she does so much for us and is so special and important to this team. I told her it was eventually going to come and she's eventually going to go off, and she did. So we're glad she did. She helped us win."

bmackay@dispatch.com

@brimackay15

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Caitlin Clark credits Cotie McMahon in Ohio State's upset against Iowa