No. 13 Ohio State women unable to hold off the No. 2 ranked team in the country, UCLA
When the Ohio State women's basketball team started the night, it looked like there could possibly be an upset in store against No. 2 UCLA. But when the final horn blew, the Buckeyes were walking away with their second loss of the season.
No. 13 Ohio State fell to the Bruins 77-71 on Monday at Value City Arena. This was the first time the team failed to record a win since their season-opener against Southern California on Nov. 6.
"I knew going in that we would have to play well ourselves to win," Buckeyes' coach Kevin McGuff said. "I didn't think we played our best, but a lot of that had to do with how well UCLA played."
The Buckeyes' energy was high coming off the tip. To open up the game, Ohio State went on a 7-0 run following a Lauren Betts turnover during UCLA's first possession.
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Betts' mishandling of the ball led to Taylor Thierry putting the first points on the board with an easy layup, which she followed with a 3-pointer soon after. UCLA turned the ball over once again just seconds later, allowing the Buckeyes to capitalize with two more points off a Jacy Sheldon fastbreak, forcing the Bruins to call a timeout with 7:57 left in first quarter.
UCLA was able to calm down and started finding opportunities, relying on rebounding and breaking through the press to score. All of the Bruins' first-quarter field goals were off layups or fast breaks.
The Buckeyes never let their opponents get ahead in the first quarter, though, finishing tied 17-17.
At the start of the second, Ohio State's half-court defense was looking strong. One of McGuff's biggest talking points going into the game, his team's defense held UCLA to two points in the first three minutes of the quarter. In that time, Ohio State took a five-point lead, but it wouldn't last long as UCLA started to come alive, going on a 12-0 run.
"I think that's on us," Sheldon said. "I think we have it in us to be really good in our press and half-court defense, and in transition defense, which we know we need to improve on, and we will, we'll go back and watch and see what we can get better on."
A big factor in the game was the Bruins' height advantage, playing to their ability to out-rebound Ohio State. The 6-foot-7 Betts was able to overpower the Buckeyes on multiple occasions, helping contribute to her 9 points and five rebounds in the first half.
"Lauren (Betts), she's really good," McGuff said. "6'7" and long, so that presents a lot of problems and I think the bigger problem was on the offensive end for us, she really altered and blocked a lot of shots."
Going into the locker room, UCLA was up 37-31, 26 of those points coming in the paint and nine off of second chances. Ohio State was outrebounded 22-13 in the first half.
The third quarter was rocky for the Buckeyes as the Bruins built their lead to 10 points quickly. Ohio State did find some chances off offensive rebounds early but was unable to finish on second chances.
As time passed, it seemed as though the energy Ohio State started the game with had faded away. The Buckeyes' game on both sides of the floor got sloppy, as they gave up 10 points off turnovers and shot 4 for 14 from the field in the third. By the end of the quarter, UCLA was up 63-45.
On a night where they needed buckets to fall to make up for their struggles in other areas, the Buckeyes went 38% from the field. Their main production came from Sheldon, who finished the game with 30 points and Thierry, who added 20. Ohio State's other three starters combined for 19 points.
"The problem tonight was we had too many possessions where the ball just kind of stuck and quit moving for us," McGuff said. 'For us to be at our best on offense, it's when we get to what I like to call the next level of the offense, and we just didn't get there enough."
The Bruins' scoring was led by Charisma Osborne, who both finished the night with 19 points and Betts, who had 17 points and 11 rebounds plus five blocked shots. UCLA ended up out-rebounding Ohio State 40-30.
Toward the end of the fourth quarter, after being down by as many of 22 points, Sheldon and Thierry sparked a little light into the Buckeyes, cutting the deficit to as little as four. Despite outscoring the Bruins 26-14 in the final quarter, UCLA's lead was just too much to come back from.
Ohio State has one more game before the holiday break, when McGuff's daughter and Columbus-native Kilyn McGuff comes to town when the Buckeyes face Belmont at 1 p.m. Friday.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: No. 13 Ohio State fall to No. 13 UCLA for second loss this season
