DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Old Dominion women’s basketball held No. 11 Ohio State to more than 20 points below their season average, but too many turnovers proved costly as the Monarchs fell 70-47 to the Buckeyes in the opening game of the Daytona Beach Classic on Thursday.
The loss snaps ODU’s five-game win streak as the Monarchs fall to 5-2.
“I think in the first half, that’s where the damage was really done. When you turn the ball over 21 times against a high-powered pressing team and offensive threat that Ohio State is, then you are going to have an uphill battle on your hands,” said ODU Head Coach DeLisha Milton-Jones.
Both defenses applied pressure early with the Buckeyes (6-0) scoring the first five points of the game before a Simaru Fields steal led to an easy layup for Mikayla Brown. After a Brenda Fontana bucket cut the deficit to 7-4, OSU’s Madison Greene went 1-for-2 at the free-throw line and Kennedy Cambridge added a layup to give Ohio State a 10-4 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Fields knocked down a couple of three-pointers in the first couple of minutes in the second quarter, trimming the OSU lead to 16-10, but the Buckeyes put together a 16-2 run as multiple Monarchs started to pick up fouls. Mariah Clayton got going with a couple of scores and ODU went into the locker room trailing 34-14.
“In the second half we were able to settle down and really see things from a different perspective,” continued Milton-Jones. “We came in and had a quick film session in the locker room and we were able to show them. It’s hard sometimes just to go off of what the coach is saying, but to actually see yourself in that environment, they had a clearer picture of what was going on. We were able to make some adjustments, and we put together a pretty solid second half.”
Ohio State stretched its lead to 24 points, 38-14, to start the third stanza. Brenda Fontana then made good on a couple of old-fashioned three-point opportunities to cut into that lead, 44-24 at the 4:31 mark. Clayton, Brown and Atchison each went 1-for-2 at the line and Fontana and Buford made a pair of late baskets as the Monarchs were down 50-32 heading into the final quarter.
Fields’ third deep ball with 6:25 to play got ODU to within 16 points at 57-41, but that was the closest the Monarchs would get. She added a late jumper, Sarah Hammack Fitzgerald scored a basket in the paint, and Jadyn Atchison got her shot to fall to close out the scoring.
Foul trouble also hurt the Monarchs. Buford picked up three in the first half and Simone Cunningham and Kelsey Thompson had four each midway through the third quarter. Thompson later fouled out with 4:23 left in the game.
Fields scored 11 points and shot 3-of-7 from beyond the arc, accounting for all three long balls in the game. She added three rebounds, three assists and two steals. Also netting 11 points was Fontana, who converted 3-of-4 free-throw attempts while grabbing four boards with one block and a pair of steals. Clayton contributed nine points with five rebounds and Brown turned in a seven-point, five-rebound effort.
The Monarchs shot 34% (18-for-53) from the field, but had a better second half with a 46.2% (6-for-13) clip in the third quarter and a 37.5% (6-for-16) effort in the fourth. The team also shot 25% (3-for-12) from distance and 57.1% (8-for-14) at the line.
ODU won the third quarter, 18-16, and held OSU to its fewest points in the first half this season. The Monarchs also forced a season-high 19 turnovers by the Buckeyes and had more production off the bench, 21-11.
“All in all, a high-powered offensive team that’s used to scoring 93 points a game and we held them to 70. So they were 23 points below their average, but it could have been an even bigger margin for us had we not given them 21 free opportunities to get 19 points off of our turnovers in the first half.”
Ohio State came into the game ranked 16th in Division I with 10.2 threes made per game, but ODU eliminated that part of the Buckeyes’ game as they went 0-for-11 from long range. It’s the first time in 368 games that OSU hasn’t made a three in a game going back 11 years to a Feb. 10, 2013 game at Northwestern when they went 0-6.
“Everything went well in defending the three because we played a defensive scheme that they had not seen. Usually people are in a drop coverage, they sit the big back and they allow the guards to go under or they choose. We wanted to make that choice for them by running them off the three-point line, into a crowd hoping that they would make the next pass."
Milton-Jones was asked about what went wrong in guarding OSU’s Ajae Petty, who led the Buckeyes with a 24-point, 11-rebound double-double.
“Their coach made some adjustments to where they got some one-on-one play with their big girl diving down the middle of the floor. That took us out of our normal rotations, and she was able to have her way. But even with the one-on-one action, I still feel like we were undisciplined in terms of leaving our feet or getting caught leaning on some of her moves and she would get right back to her dominant hand. We gave her that opportunity far too many times.”
ODU has one more game in the Classic, a 3:30 p.m. meeting with Oakland this Saturday. Before that game, the Golden Grizzlies (2-4) will play Richmond at 11 a.m. on Friday.