The schedule is not wrong. No. 14 Ohio State women’s basketball is not done with nonconference, regular season, basketball. Monday in Newark, New Jersey, the Buckeyes face the No. 10 TCU Horned Frogs in The Coretta Scott King Classic.
Played annually on Martin Luther King Jr. day, the doubleheader pits the Buckeyes and Horned Frogs against each other for the first time in respective program histories. The Big Ten and Big 12 matchup highlights two teams that feature teams full of new names and excelling despite the high turnover from the 2024-25 season, and one of those new names for TCU is two-time All-American Olivia Miles.
Miles transfer
During transfer portal season in the spring of 2025, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost its dynamic guard duo of Miles and All-American Hannah Hidalgo. After one season with both guards on the floor and healthy, Miles entered the transfer portal and landed at a popular transfer location.
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Last season, former Louisville Cardinal and LSU Tiger guard Hailey Van Lith joined head coach Mark Campbell’s side and won Big 12 Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year and landed in the WNBA with the Chicago Sky. This season, Miles is the new standout Horned Frogs guard and offensively, the graduate senior is even better.
Miles has 10 career triple-doubles, when a player has double-digit stats in three different categories, and four came this season with TCU. What makes Miles so difficult to guard is her unpredictability and creativity. TCU’s star guard can take a shot from deep, go to the basket or charge the rim, find a teammate and make a pass that the defense does not expect.
The guard is a matchup test and requires the best defenders. That means either Kennedy Cambridge or Jaloni Cambridge for Ohio State. Kennedy Cambridge’s 72.2 defensive rating, the advanced statistic that measures how many points a team scores while a player is on the court in 100 possessions, is the second best in the Big Ten.
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Jaloni Cambridge is not too far away at 78.6, and has a slight advantage because the Buckeye point guard and Miles both tried out for Team USA’s youth side in the summer. Duke and Team USA coach Kara Lawson went with Miles and Hidalgo, and no Jaloni Cambridge, but that one-on-one play inside the tryout means Ohio State may not go into the game completely blind.
Jaloni Cambridge enters Monday as only the second player in the nation, since 2000, to score over 100 points and have over 20 rebounds and 20 assists in a three-game span. The Buckeye sophomore joins former Iowa Hawkeye guard Caitlin Clark with the unique distinction.
The rest of TCU
While Miles’ talent and work ethic is hard to match in NCAA women’s basketball, it does take more than one player to win a basketball game and the Horned Frogs are not short on experience.
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TCU’s projected starting five includes four players who were not a Horned Frog last season. Fellow guard Marta Suarez is on her third team in her fifth NCAA season on the court. After two seasons with the Tennessee Volunteers, and then the University of California, Suarez joined TCU and is the team’s long distance shooter.
The guard takes 6.1 three-point shots per game and hits 36.5% of them for a career high 16.6 points per game. Suarez did play against Ohio State in the 22-23 season opener, but only played eight minutes with a rebound and turnover.
On Jan. 14, 2026, the Horned Frogs were in a similar position against the West Virginia Mountaineers as the Buckeyes who played the same Morgantown side on Nov. 26, 2025. West Virginia put TCU in foul trouble and the Horned Frogs needed a late comeback to secure a win.
Suarez helped TCU pick up the win in dramatic fashion with a buzzer beating three-point shot.
Then there is the duo of guard Maddie Scherr and forward Clara Silva from the Kentucky Wildcats. Both left Lexington following last season and committed to TCU. Silva did not start a game in her freshman season, but as a sophomore with TCU is coach Campbell’s starting No. 5 role.
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The Portugal native is a direct matchup for Ohio State forward Elsa Lemmilä. Both are 6-foot-7 centers who play a finesse game of basketball. Neither are overly powerful like UCLA’s Lauren Betts or Penn State’s Gracie Merkle but both of the Europeans are coming on strong around the midway point of the season.
Silva averaged 9.7 points and 7.7 rebounds in the first 12 games of the season, all nonconference matchups and only one came against a ranked opponent. In seven Big 12 games, Silva averaged 11.7 points and 8.9 rebounds and has three double-doubles. Then, when Silva gets a rest, 6-foot-7 transfer forward Kennedy Basham enters the game and TCU does not lose any size.
The only returner in the starting five is Donovyn Hunter, a junior guard who is in her second season with TCU after Hunter began with the Oregon State Beavers. Hunter, like Suarez, found a school to let her take all the deep shots she wants, with a career high 12.2 points per game.
In Ohio State’s last game, Penn State Nittany Lions guard Moriah Murray exposed the Buckeyes’ weak transition defense from beyond the arc to the tune of 26 points with eight shots from three-point range. Between Suarez and Hunter alone, Ohio State has its work cut out for itself. Then add Miles distributing and shooting to add another wrinkle.
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Like the Buckeyes, TCU is a lineup with a lot of new parts, but Ohio State has the advantage of a havoc-inducing full court press. The Horned Frogs are experienced, but have not played a team that presses like Ohio State. TCU has 19 turnovers per game in the last three conference matchups, including 23 against West Virginia.
Another slight advantage tipped in Ohio State’s favor is travel. The Buckeyes traveled to Newark after a full week at home while TCU played in West Virginia Wednesday night, Texas on Saturday night and now New Jersey on Monday.
Depending on how its looked at, the Horned Frogs are more warmed up than the Buckeyes with the more recent conference game Could the Buckeyes start on their heels and get caught off guard by a fresh TCU?
Projected Lineups
Ohio State
G: Jaloni Cambridge
G: Chance Gray
G: Kennedy Cambridge
F: Kylee Kitts
C: Elsa Lemmilä
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Lineup Notes
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Chance Gray’s 23 points and Elsa Lemmilä‘s 21 points are the first games hitting the 20-point mark for both players this season
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Jaloni Cambridge has over 100 points, 20 assists and 20 rebounds in the last three games. Only Cambridge and Iowa guard Caitlin Clark achieved the feat in the last 26 years
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Elsa Lemmilä is 10 blocks away from 100 in her NCAA career
TCU
G: Olivia Miles
G: Maddie Scherr
G: Donovyn Hunter
F/G: Marta Suarez
C: Clara Silva
Lineup Notes
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Four of the five projected starters for TCU transferred into the program before the 25-26 season
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Olivia Miles’ 19.2 points per game is the highest in the All-American’s career
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Olivia Miles also leads the Big 12 with 63 turnovers
Prediction
Ohio State will get TCU running and force turnovers, but that does not mean Miles will have a light game. The graduate senior and the Cambridges will take turns getting through each other. However, TCU’s three-point shooting will keep the game close and the experienced side comes away with a narrow victory.
LGHL Score Prediction: 82-79 TCU Horned Frogs
How to Watch
Date: Monday, January 19, 2026
Time: 12:00 p.m. ET
Where: Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey
Television: FOX
Stream: FOX Sports App
Big Ten doubleheader
After Ohio State and TCU, The Coretta Scott King Classic features another ranked matchup, and includes the Big Ten. The No. 8 ranked Michigan Wolverines face the No. 5 Vanderbilt Commodores roughly 30 minutes after the first game of the day.
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Michigan won the last four games after the Wolverines fell against the Washington Huskies, in Seattle, Washington, on Jan. 1. The Maize and Blue beat a ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish and got the closest to knocking off the No. 1 UConn Huskies than any team this season.
Vanderbilt has not lost yet this season and guard Mikayla Blakes leads the breakout season. Blakes is first in the SEC and second in the nation with 25.6 points per game.
Both matchups in the Monday afternoon doubleheader are designed to pit the power conferences against each other for one of the last times before March Madness. Is the Big Ten really as good as all the coaches and players within it say? By Monday afternoon, there will be more evidence to argue over.
