Great regular season by the Lady Buckeyes and I think they are tied with Michigan State for the title. I hope they can keep it going in the post season.Behind Davenport, OSU Wins Share Of Big Ten Title Mike Wachsman
BuckeyeSports.com Staff Writer
In the days leading up to Ohio State's showdown with Penn State, Buckeyes center Jessica Davenport reminded her teammates — more than once — that she's never won a championship.
Since Davenport is the engine that makes the OSU machine hum, her teammates decided to take those words as more than just lip service.
They got her the ball — eventually — and Davenport's deadeye shooting from the foul line helped the fourth-ranked Buckeyes win their first Big Ten title since 1992-93, beating the Nittany Lions 69-58 in front of a Big Ten record crowd of 17,525 in Columbus Feb. 27.
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Kevin Dye/BuckeyeSports.com
Jessica Davenport cut down the nets after scoring 29 points and grabbing 16 rebounds.
Davenport finished with 29 points — which included hitting all 13 of her free throws — 16 rebounds, six blocks and four assists. The 13-for-13 effort tied the school record set twice by Katie Smith.
"They made it hard for me to get the ball where I wanted, but I was able to hit my free throws," Davenport said. "That's something I've been working on a lot. Coach Pete (Gaudet) has a little game he plays with me where I have to make 10 free throws in a row before I can leave the gym. I've been staying a little extra lately, and even today it took me a while. But I was able to hit them during the game."
The victory assured the Buckeyes (27-3, 14-2) the top seed in the Big Ten tournament, which begins March 3 in Indianapolis. It also capped an unbeaten season at home for Ohio State, which went 17-0 in the friendly confines, including 7-0 against ranked teams.
"This is the best," senior guard Caity Matter said. "I've won league championships in high school, but this is right at the top."
OSU coach Jim Foster, who coached conference champions at St. Joseph's and Vanderbilt, felt this team had the requisite work ethic to get the job done.
"I'm happy for them," Foster said. "I think they reached this point by being the same every day. They played hard and played aggressive defensively, and defense wins you championships."
OSU led 26-14 at the break, thanks to a buzzer-beating jumper by Matter, and extended the margin to 48-34 with 9:27 left in the game on a jumper by Davenport.
But No. 22 Penn State showed why it's a two-time defending champion, digging down behind seniors Tanisha Wright and Jess Strom.
Wright hit a layup and then Strom scored seven of the next nine points, pulling Penn State to 52-48 with 5:12 to play.
Strom had two more golden opportunities to cut into the lead, but one shot was blocked by Davenport and another caromed off the side of the rim.
OSU converted the missed shot into a fastbreak basket by Brandie Hoskins to go up 56-50 with just over four minutes to go, and never led by fewer than six the rest of the way.
Wright finished with 29 points while Strom ended up with 12, but their efforts weren't quite enough.
"I thought we played very hard, but Ohio State has the trophy," Penn State coach Rene Portland said. "We know how hard it is to win a championship and we give credit to Ohio State. We played much better in the second half and made them work."
The Buckeyes were rattled a bit by Penn State's press, turning the ball over 17 times.
The Lions trapped the ball in the corners and managed 10 steals, and Portland lamented the fact that she didn't call for the press earlier.
"Our press did a terrific job," she said.
Foster liked the way the Buckeyes responded after timeouts and stayed aggressive despite the fact they were turning the ball over.
"You have to attack the press, and we stayed in attack mode," Foster said. "We were a little indecisive for a couple of minutes. But we got the ship righted."
After missing its first 11 shots, OSU recovered to shoot a respectable 43.4 percent from the floor. Penn State hit just 38.5 percent and was outrebounded by the Buckeyes 45-28.
Hoskins finished with 17 points and a career-best seven rebounds while Matter netted 16 points in her final home game.
As Penn State was cutting into the Buckeyes lead, it would have been easy to see visions of the previous Sunday flashing in their heads. OSU played a sloppy game and lost to Michigan State in East Lansing, blowing a lead late in the game.
That wasn't going to happen again — at least not if Matter had anything to say about it.
"The last couple of games we were playing not to lose," Matter said. "Today the competitive spirit in all of us came out. There was never any panic or any thought about losing. We've worked too hard to let a championship get away, so we knew if we just focused on the right things we'd win."
