Lady Basketball Buckeyes Tidbits 2005-2006 Season

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Tough one to end the season on, but its been a great season and congratulations to the team.....next year should be another great year....

Canton

3/22/06

NCAA women’s basketball tournament:

Wednesday, March 22, 2006


By MICHAEL MAROT AP Sports Writer

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BOTTLED UP: Boston College defenders Kathrin Ress (11) and Brooke Queenan surround Ohio State’s Jessica Davenport during Tuesday’s NCAA women’s tournament game in West Lafayette, Ind. Davenport finished with 21 points despite constant attention from the Eagles defense, but Boston College pulled a 79-69 upset over the top-seeded Buckeyes.

Boston College 79, Ohio State 69


WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Boston College seemed an unlikely candidate to pull the biggest upset of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

Snapping out of a late-season slump, the eighth-seeded Eagles made Ohio State the first No. 1 seed to exit the NCAAs with a 79-69 victory Tuesday in the second round of the Albuquerque regional.

Kindyll Dorsey scored 24 points and hit six 3-pointers to lead the Eagles as the Buckeyes became the first top seed eliminated in the second round since Texas Tech in 1998.

“We did not defend the 3-point shot well at all,” Ohio State Head Coach Jim Foster said. “We did a great job on Dorsey in December. Tonight, we did not do a good job at all.”

While it was a surprise to see the Buckeyes (29-3) struggle, it was every bit as stunning that the Eagles managed to right themselves and reach the regional semifinals.

Boston College (21-11) had lost five straight entering the tournament. The Eagles now face fifth-seeded Utah on Saturday as they continue their quest to go home for the Final Four in Boston.

“That’s all we heard is we lost five in a row,” Boston College Head Coach Cathy Inglese said. “All we worked on was our execution on defense.”

The Buckeyes, in contrast, had been cruising. They came into the tournament crowned Big Ten regular-season and tourney champs and had just taken over the nation’s longest winning streak when they won No. 20 Sunday against 16th-seeded Oakland.

But the most debated of this year’s top seeds also proved the most vulnerable.

Big Ten Player of the Year Jessica Davenport led the Buckeyes with 21 points and seven rebounds — not enough to avoid their first loss since Jan. 1, which was also came at Mackey Arena against Purdue.

“We didn’t come out on the level we needed to, especially in the first four minutes,” said Marscilla Packer, who had 16 points for the Buckeyes. “We were scoring, but we weren’t stopping them.”

For Boston College, Dorsey loosened up the defense from outside and Brooke Queenan, who had 19 points and five rebounds, connected on a variety of midrange jumpers and drives.

The combination allowed the Eagles to take control quickly with a 20-9 lead.

Davenport was not much of a factor in the first half, and the Buckeyes shot a dismal 37.8 percent from the field in the second half. But they still managed to rally twice.

Ohio State used a 13-5 first half run to tie the score at 31 only to watch Boston College close out the half with five straight points to take a 38-35 lead.

In the second half, the Buckeyes finally took a 48-46 lead when Kim Wilburn hit a 15-footer with 10:47 left. This time the Eagles tied it with two free throws from Sarah Marshall and went on a 15-5 run to make it 61-53. Boston College sealed the victory with a late 8-2 run that sent them to their third regional semifinal in four years.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

3/22/06

BOSTON COLLEGE 79 | OHIO STATE 69

End of the road

Three-pointers doom Ohio State in second round

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Jim Massie
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

</IMG> MIKE MUNDEN | DISPATCH Boston College’s Sarah Marshall takes the ball from Ohio State’s Brandie Hoskins in the first half.


WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The NCAA Tournament dreams of the Ohio State women’s basketball team ended in tears instead of celebration last night in Mackey Arena two weeks and a few thousand air miles shy of the Final Four.
Eighth-seeded Boston College, an old and bitter nemesis, knocked the top-seeded Buckeyes out of the tournament in the second round for the second time in three years in a stunning 79-69 upset in front of 3,766 fans.
The loss ended a 20-game winning streak for OSU (29-3) and left the team shellshocked.
"We were out of sync tonight," senior forward Debbie Merrill said. "We didn’t communicate well. BC came to play. We dug ourselves a hole the first few minutes of the game and couldn’t dig out of it. Every time it looked like we might catch them, they’d hit a bucket or get a steal. We never got any momentum."
The Eagles (21-11), who move onto the Sweet 16 in the Albuquerque region, had a sensational game from junior guard Kindyll Dorsey. She killed the Buckeyes from the perimeter by nailing 6 of 10 three-point shots. Brooke Queenan complemented Dorsey’s 24 points by scoring 19 on the block to help Boston College get payback for a 66-61 overtime loss to OSU in the regular season.
Junior center Jessica Davenport led the Buckeyes with 21 points and seven rebounds, but Boston College forced her to work for every point. Sophomore guard Marscilla Packer added 16 points and Brandie Hoskins had 13 before leaving the game in the final minutes because of an ankle injury.
"I think the X-factor for them in this game was the shooter Dorsey," Davenport said. "I think she scored three points the last game. This game she had a lot. That was pretty much the X-factor."
OSU coach Jim Foster agreed.
"We did not defend the threepoint shot at all," he said. "We did a great job on Dorsey in December and today we did a very poor job. That is the bottom line if you look at the numbers. It’s just fundamental defensive basketball. It didn’t get done."
The game had dogfight written all over it from the moment the tournament brackets were revealed. Anyone who had seen the last two meetings between the two teams knew that the Eagles wouldn’t budge an inch for the Buckeyes.
Boston College immediately began to test the OSU defense and found holes where a stonewall had been set up for much of the season.
The Buckeyes entered the game holding opponents to 52.3 points per game, which was the fourth best mark in the nation. But the Eagles were unimpressed. They hit their first four shots from the field and rushed to a 17-7 lead in the first 5:45 of the game.
OSU fought back to tie the score twice before the first half ended and even took a 35-33 lead on a Merrill basket. But Dorsey hit a field goal and a trey in the final 1:33 to give the Eagles a 38-35 lead at the break.
The second half played out much the same way with the Buckeyes struggling to pull even and Boston College always sprinting away.
Kim Wilburn gave OSU a 48-46 lead with 10:47 to play, but the Eagles tied it on two free throws by Sarah Marshall. Dorsey then followed with a three. Davenport answered with a score, but Dorsey found another opening and buried another three. She hit a third trey two minutes later and the deficit was 61-53. The Buckeyes couldn’t recover.
"I don’t think there was too much emotion out there like there usually is," senior guard Ashley Allen said. "They just outplayed us. They outworked us. There is really no excuse or right answer. We’re a harder working team than we showed tonight. Unfortunately, it just so happened to be the wrong night and the last opportunity for a lot of us."
jmassie@dispatch.com

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

[BB73]

Jessica Davenport and AJ Hawk have been named tOSU "Athletes of the Year" for 2006.


ozone

OSU Athletics : The Ohio State University has announced it's 2006 Athletes of the Year. This year's honorees are junior women's basketball player Jessica Davenport and senior football player A.J. Hawk.
Davenport is a two-time Big Ten Player of the Year and a two-time All American while playing center for the Buckeyes. This past year she led the Big Ten Conference in points (18.7), rebounds (8.9), blocks (3.1) and field goal percentage (.618).
Hawk lead the football team in tackles for the third consectutive year in 2005 and he was a unanimous selection for team MVP. The Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year was also the Defensive MVP in both the 2004 and 2006 Fiesta Bowls. Hawk was also honored with the Lombardi Award, and was selected fifth overall in the 2006 NFL draft.
The OSU Atheletes of the Year are selected by Ohio State athletics administrators based on their athletic performances throughout the 2005-06 season.