Ohio State women’s basketball returned to the Schottenstein Center for its second game of the calendar week. Thanks to a stout, record-breaking, defensive performance in the first quarter, the Buckeyes strolled to an easy 90-33 win over the Bellarmine Knights.
Head coach Kevin McGuff, who was noncommittal in postgame press availability on Sunday about who would start the second game of the season. However, the coach brought back the same five on Thursday, which featured Cambridge sisters Jaloni and Kennedy, guard Chance Gray, forward Kylee Kitts and center Elsa Lemmilä.
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Any idea that the Buckeyes were looking ahead to Sunday’s matchup against the UConn Huskies was squashed in the first quarter. Ohio State’s defense held Bellarmine to 0-for-17 shooting in the opening 10 minutes. That made program history as the only quarter where the Scarlet and Gray held a team to zero points.
After 10-minutes and 25 seconds of game time, the Knights scored their first point, from the free throw line. When the shot went in, the crowd was a mixture of genuine and sarcastic applause. That put the score of the matchup at 26-1.
By halftime, Bellarmine added another nine points to go down 46-10 after 20 minutes. Because of the lopsided half, McGuff again got all 11 players into the game in the first half, and everyone played at least four minutes for the Scarlet and Gray. Starting guards Chance Gray and Jaloni Cambridge scored 22 points combined.
The basket that earned a big reaction came from Ohio State big Ella Hobbs. The 6-foot-3 forward hit a shot from deep. For Kennedy Cambridge, who had seven steals and multiple deflected passes in the first game, picked up early fouls in the first half, but still managed three steals in the opening two quarters.
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Bellarmine came out of the halftime locker room settled down after a tough first half. The Knights made consecutive shots in the run of play for the first time in the game and six different Bellarmine players got into the scoring column in the 14-point quarter for the visitors. Unfortunately for the side from Louisville, Kentucky, Ohio State also had an improved offensive quarter with the starters playing only four minutes of the period.
McGuff leveraged his bench five points by freshman guard Dasha Biriuk helped the Buckeyes extend their lead into the fourth quarter. Ohio State added 27 in the third quarter and grew their lead to 49 points with 10 minutes remaining.
Ohio State’s starters never came back into the game and the Buckeyes cruised to their second win of the season in two games.
Jaloni Cambridge led all scorers with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting. The sophomore also went a perfect 6-of-6 from the line in a physical game. Gray scored 14 points for the Buckeyes and the redshirt freshman Kitts had eight rebounds. Biriuk led all bench scorers 15 points.
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The Buckeyes’ 57-point win is their biggest winning margin over Bellarmine in two games. On Nov. 23, 2021, the two sides met for the first time in program history and the Scarlet and Gray won 110-58, a 52-point victory.
What’s Next
In Land-Grant Holy Land’s preseason fan poll, one team rose above the rest for who Buckeye fans wanted to see on the opposing bench — the UConn Huskies. On Sunday, Ohio State takes on the defending national championship-winning Huskies in Connecticut. The Buckeyes are 1-6 overall against UConn, but that one victory was the last matchup between the two sides. In the 2023 Sweet Sixteen, Ohio State stunned UConn 73-61 in Seattle, Washington.
There are no Buckeyes on this team that played in that victory, but UConn guard Azzi Fudd and National Freshman of the Year Sarah Strong have the Huskies off to an undefeated start to the season.
It is a tall test for Ohio State when the two sides face-off on Peacock at noon ET.
