Three lessons from No. 9 Ohio State women’s win over No. 24 Washington

Before No. 9 Ohio State women’s basketball and the No. 24 Washington Huskies stepped onto the court on Thursday night, all the talk surrounded the play of Sayvia Sellers, the USBWA Player of the Week for the Huskies. The attention was deserved and Ohio State had its hands full in preparation for Alaska native.

In the end, Ohio State came away with its 10th Big Ten win and sixth Quad 1 win in the NCAA’s NET rankings, but it was not easy, despite leading the Huskies for over 37 minutes of the game. What is there to take away from the victory? Here is how the Buckeyes played against Sellers, Ohio State’s work against the rest of Washington’s group of guards and silencing the crowd.

Sellers’ night

Washington’s star junior guard entered Thursday with 22.6 points, 4.6 assists and 1.4 blocks per game over the last five outings for the Huskies, and the performances came against tough teams in the Big Ten. For example, against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, who upset the Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City on Thursday night, had 23 points and four assists. Then Sellers outdid herself against the Maryland Terrapins in College Mark, Maryland with 38 points, 6 assists and 2 blocks.

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“She [Sellers] was our main focus,” Chance Gray told reporters.

Ohio State had its hands full and, scoring-wise, Sellers showed her danger against the Buckeyes. Sellers scored 26 points on 9-for-16 shooting, which matched Jaloni Cambridge’s total for Ohio State.

Sellers scored, yes, but the Buckeyes did enough to limit the guard and her other actions that hurt opponents. Take distribution as a strong example. Ohio State held Sellers, who leads Washington with nearly four assists per game, with one on Thursday night.

Also, the Buckeyes forced five turnovers against Sellers, a game high, in two ways. First, by simply getting ahead on the scoreboard. Ohio State pressured the Huskies from the jump and quickly built an 11-point lead, which made the Huskies try and force their way back into the game. Then, defensively, the Buckeyes put pressure on the guard for each of the 37 minutes Sellers played.

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Of Sellers’ 27 points, 11 came in the second half of the fourth quarter. A stretch of just over three and a half minutes saw Sellers’ lone sustained run of offense for the Huskies. Ohio State called a timeout with the 15-point lead cut down to only four points and allowed only two shots in the last two minutes of the game. Both came from Sellers and she missed both.

In the end, it was a “bend, don’t break” defensive performance against Sellers, but the best players all have the ability to turn a game on its head. However, Ohio State made it a game that only one player could win.

Stopping the rest

Washington is not only Sellers. The Huskies tout a starting group of four guards who all bring their own unique strengths to games, and Ohio State rendered them ineffective. Sophomore guard Avery Howell came on strong this year for the Huskies after spending her first year with the USC Trojans, mostly in a bench role. In a home upset over the Michigan Wolverines this season, Howell 22 points and 16 rebounds in the victory.

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Before Thursday night, Howell was second on the team in scoring behind Sellers with 13.3 points and led the team with 8.1 rebounds per game. In the last four games, Howell averaged 15.8 points and 9.3 rebounds, showing an uptick at the right time as the regular season begins to close.

At halftime on Thursday, Howell had four points and six rebounds. It looked like Howell was on her way to a sixth double-double on the season, but the Buckeyes held the guard to three points and one rebound in the second half, while Howell played 18 of the 20 available minutes. Howell ended with seven points and seven rebounds, below her season averages.

Senior guards Elle Ladine and Hannah Stines also struggled. Ladine had eight rebounds and four assists, but missed all five shots she attempted while Stines had four points on 2-for-6 shooting.

“We did a nice job,” head coach Kevin McGuff told reporters. “I mean, they’re very talented, and one of the things we emphasized with the team is when they shoot the ball, well, they’re very hard to beat. And so we knew, obviously we’d have to guard sellers, and that presents a lot of challenges, but we would also have to not let them get really good rhythm threes and and I think we did a pretty good job of all of that.”

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Despite all of the rightful praise given to the guards at Washington, Ohio State showed it was up to the challenge on defense. Of the Huskies’ 19 turnovers on the night, 17 came from the guards.

“Being in the gaps with her [Sellers], we knew, even though she had a great game, that, if we let just one of them go off we would be okay for the game. So she was our main focus. And try to take the others out the game.”

Jaloni’s shush

After the game, when the Buckeyes spoke with media, an arena employee interrupted the press conference to let Jaloni Cambridge know that she is the best player he has ever seen. It was that kind of night for the sophomore point guard.

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Cambridge started the game in a familiar way, with two early fouls that made her miss some of the first quarter. It was the guard’s third game in a row with two fouls in the first quarter, but this time Cambridge’s game was a little different. There was not a huge surge of offense from Cambridge in the second half like there was against the Illinois Fighting Illini or Maryland Terrapins earlier in January.

No, Cambridge was consistent throughout her 40 minutes. Take the first quarter where, even though she played only six of the 10 available minutes, Cambridge scored eight points. That tied the third quarter for Cambridge for her highest scoring output in a period Thursday night.

In the fourth quarter, when the Huskies surged to make it a two-possession game, Cambridge did not go off for double-digit points. Instead, the guard helped in other ways. In the third quarter, Cambridge dove out of bounds to steal the ball and get it back in play for an extra Ohio State possession. In the fourth quarter, the guard had four rebounds and two assists, the most in either category in a quarter on Thursday.

Yes, Cambridge also did have big baskets. With 1:38 remaining, as Washington enjoyed a 13-2 run in the previous four minutes, Cambridge hit a deep two at the top of the arc to slow the bleeding for the Buckeyes. That shot turned an excited crowd’s volume down a bit, and Cambridge wanted it down further. After she hit the jumper, Cambridge put her index finger up to her mouth to tell everyone to quiet down.