Last week, No. 23 Ohio State women’s basketball (7-1, 1-0) dispatched the Niagara Purple Eagles with a 98-point rout. On Sunday, it was a different story with the first Big Ten game of the season, and it began against the Northwestern Wildcats (6-3, 0-1). After Ohio State went down six points after one quarter, 22 points from Jaloni Cambridge and an 18-point second half for forward Kylee Kitts earned the buckeyes the 79-67 victory.
Both teams struggled to start the game and the Buckeyes and Wildcats combined to miss the first six shots of the game. However, Wildcats forward Grace Sullivan started scoring and the Buckeyes struggled to stop her. The forward who averaged 22.8 points to start the season scored the first 12 for Northwestern and went into the halftime locker room with 18 points, all coming from midrange baskets.
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As Sullivan was making midrange shooting look like a pop-a-shot machine, Ohio State struggled offensively. Point guard Jaloni Cambridge picked up two first quarter fouls and had to go to the bench after seven minutes of the opening 10. The Buckeyes were down 16-10 after one quarter on 26.7% shooting from the floor.
Redshirt freshman forward Kylee Kitts had a quarter to forget to start off Sunday. The forward looked uncomfortable on the court. After mistakes on both sides of the court near the end of the first quarter, head coach Kevin McGuff brought center Elsa Lemmilä into the game in the closing seconds and kept the 6’6” Finnish center in the game for the entirety of the second quarter.
Lemmilä looked more comfortable on the court after offseason surgery recovery slowed the center down at the start of the season. The forward had four rebounds, and three on the offensive side of the court in the second quarter. On top of six points on 3-of-4 shooting.
The Buckeyes youth was a disadvantage to start the game, but as the side calmed down, performance improved. It also helped that Jaloni Cambridge returned to the game. After missing nearly six game minutes, the guard brought life back to Ohio State. Northwestern struggled to adjust to the Buckeyes’ screen and Jaloni Cambridge exploited it with midrange shots or finding Lemmilä inside.
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Ohio State ended the first half on an 11-point run and outscored the Wildcats 17-7 since Cambridge came back into the game. The Buckeyes turned a six-point deficit at the end of the first quarter to an eight-point lead at halftime.
Normally, the Buckeyes enter the second half with renewed intensity, and that turns into a strong defensive performance in the third quarter. Sunday was no different.
Northwestern hit two early shots from beyond the arc to cut Ohio State’s lead down to four points, but then the full court press began to click. The Buckeyes grabbed three steals in two minutes, two from junior guard Kennedy Cambridge, who entered Sunday with the most steals per game in the Big Ten with four. Kennedy Cambridge matched the average in three quarters.
For Kitts, the time away, and halftime, helped. The forward looked composed in the second half and was effective inside. Kitts scored nine points in the third quarter on perfect 3-for-3 shooting inside the paint. That rolled into the fourth quarter and the Wildcats began double-teaming the big to try and slow her down.
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McGuff’s side had a 14-point lead going into the fourth quarter and things got worse for the Wildcats, mainly with foul trouble. Ohio State took 13 free throws in the game before Northwestern got to the charity stripe once. To the officiating crew’s credit, the Wildcats did not attack the basket like the Buckeyes, instead focused on midrange or deep shooting. Ohio State had a 30-16 points in the paint advantage when Sullivan got to the line with 17 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Point guard Caroline Lau and Sullivan each had four fouls in the fourth quarter. The Wildcats’ leading scorer and leading distributor (Lau leads the nation with 8.9 assists per game) had to be careful if there was any chance to cut down the deficit.
As hard as Northwestern tried, it could not stop the Buckeyes. Kitts started the final quarter with the first six points, as if early struggles never happened. Sullivan hurt Ohio State with 33 points, but only one other player for the Wildcats hit double-digit scoring in the defeat.
With 3:30 remaining, Jaloni Cambridge picked up her fifth and final foul of the game, with 22 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. At the same time, the Wildcats scored six unanswered points to cut the deficit down to 11 points, the lowest since the third quarter. Even so, the Buckeyes held on, and did not give the Wildcats too much hope of a comeback.
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Number of the Game: 100
Kennedy Cambridge had four steals in the victory and that gave the guard 100 steals in her NCAA career — 79 with Ohio State and the remaining 21 with the Kentucky Wildcats.
This is the first year McGuff used Kennedy Cambridge as a regular starter and its paid defensively for Ohio State. Kennedy Cambridge took over for now-WNBA pro Taylor Thierry as the strongest defender on the Buckeyes. The guard also had two blocks and six assists.
Back to the Nonconference
Sunday was only a tease of the Big Ten calendar. The Buckeyes are back to nonconference matchups, starting on Thursday against the Northern Kentucky Norse. It is the first of four games outside of the Big Ten until the No. 3 UCLA Bruins travel to Columbus on Dec. 28.
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Ohio State is 3-0 all-time against the Norse. The two sides last played on Dec. 20 when the Buckeyes defeated the Horizon League side 96-63. Northern Kentucky has on game this season against a ranked side. On Nov. 9, the Norse lost to the then No. 22 Louisville Cardinals 89-61.
