One night after the Ohio State men’s basketball crushed North Carolina, the women’s team followed up with perhaps something more impressive. Also as part of the Big Ten-ACC challenge, the Buckeyes women’s basketball team took out No. 2 Louisville by a score of 67-60 on Thursday night.
The Buckeyes have not had the greatest start to the season. They played very well in a tough loss to UConn two weeks ago, but they also dropped two early-season games against Ohio and South Dakota. The Buckeyes were clearly talented, but the results weren’t following. Louisville, meanwhile, came into the game undefeated, and had just upset then-No. 1 Oregon on Saturday.
The game was a tight, back-and-forth affair, which highlighted just how much potential these Buckeyes have. No team led by more than nine points, and Ohio State was able to stick with the No. 2 team in the country play for play throughout the game. In an astounding stat, the Buckeyes led for the entirety of the fourth quarter–but the lead stayed between two and six points for the first half of the quarter. Ohio State built the lead to nine after that, then held on as both teams went scoreless for three of the game’s final four minutes.
Four Buckeyes scored in double figures, including Slovenian freshman Rebeka Mikulasikova coming off the bench. Dorka Juhasz, another international player (from Hungary) led Ohio State with 15 points and seven rebounds.
This Buckeyes team is very young–there are only two seniors on the roster, neither of whom saw the floor in this game. The team is also very talented. There are some growing pains that come with the youth, as we saw in losses earlier this season, but there is also a ton of potential, put into action against Louisville. The Buckeyes will soon get another chance to show off just how far they’ve come, as they travel to face No. 1 Stanford a week from Sunday.