Ohio State women’s basketball (13-2) is capitalizing on having one of the top scorers in the Big Ten, Jaloni Cambridge, who powered the Buckeyes to a 78-69 victory over Illinois on the road Jan. 7.
Cambridge recorded a career-high 41 points during the road matchup, bringing her season average to 20.8 points per game, which is the third-highest in the conference. The outing against Illinois makes Cambridge the first Buckeye since Kelsey Mitchell in 2016 to have a 40-plus point performance.
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The point guard also notched six assists, six rebounds and two steals.
“It’s just giving what the other team gives you,” Cambridge said. “If they’re not stopping you, just keep going. I literally just keep going.”
The Buckeyes and Fighting Illini spent the first half trading leads, with the advantage bouncing back and forth 16 times before Ohio State pulled away in the second half.
With 6:05 remaining in the third quarter, senior guard Chance Gray hit a long jumper off an assist from Cambridge that gave the Buckeyes the lead for good.
“Every time we got a stop,” Ohio State women’s basketball coach Kevin McGuff said. “We were able to outlet the ball, get the ball in her [Cambridge’s] hands, she made something happen.”
Ohio State’s Jaloni Cambridge scored 41 points in a Jan. 7 win over Illinois.
Illinois attempted to chip away and cut OSU’s edge down from 13 to as little as five. The efforts of Cambridge, however, were too much for the Fighting Illini to overcome.
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Gray was Ohio State’s second-leading scorer. She has seen an uptick in her production of late and was 6-for-13 from the field against Illinois.
“I think one of my roles on this team is just to keep being consistent,” Gray said. “So, if that’s making shots or making the assist or getting stops on defense, it’s just doing whatever I need to do to keep the team as poised as I can.”
Sloppy play kept both teams from being able to build a substantial lead in the first half, as there was a three-minute stretch in the middle of the second quarter where neither scored. Ohio State and Illinois combined for two fouls, four turnovers, and went 0-for-7 during the stretch.
The Buckeyes recorded seven first-half turnovers, marking the second game in a row in which they had this issue. Despite Ohio State averaging just over 14 turnovers per game, against Rutgers, the team had 10 first-half turnovers.
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“I think both teams kind of turned the ball over a little too much in the first half,” McGuff said. “So, we came out at halftime, and I thought our execution on offense was a lot better.”
Ohio State will be back on the road on Jan. 11 to face Maryland, the only Big Ten opponent the Buckeyes face twice in the regular season. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Jaloni Cambridge powers OSU women’s basketball to win vs Illinois
