Our Honor Defend

In spite of what happened last night — again: 21 offensive rebounds to 6? Really? — there will still be basketball ongoing for fans of Ohio State athletics.  Where their male counterparts failed to get the job done last night in Dayton, the women pulled through.  It was grim at the beginning of the first and second halves, but the Buckeyes eventually beat Sacred Heart by 14.

I’m going to attribute some of the pain in finally putting Sacred Heart away to their winning credentials.  While the Buckeyes just won their 9th straight game, the Pioneers hadn’t lost this year in basketball.  Their 21 consecutive wins before this game followed their last loss on December 28th, 2008, to Villanova.  A team on that kind of roll is bound to pose some kind of hurdles to a quick and easy victory for a goliath like Ohio State.  Sure enough, those hurdles came at the beginning of the first half and, especially, at the beginning of the second half.  Ohio State didn’t get off to quite the start I wanted.  I wanted the Buckeyes to run Sacred Heart up and down and, eventually, off the court, but the Buckeyes had only 11 points 10 minutes into the first half.  This was matched by Sacred Heart’s 11.  The Buckeyes eventually broke through late into the first half, pushing the lead to 9 after three Prahalis free throws and, eventually, 12 at intermission.

The bigger anxiety came in the way the second half started, though.  Sacred Heart mixed up their defense and Ohio State began to idle.  Sacred Heart responded by beginning the second half on a 14-6 run to close Ohio State’s lead to only 2 with 12 minutes left.  Senior Ashlee Trebilcock responded with a quick three, followed by a three from Maria Moeller to push the lead to 8.  By time the under-7 timeout came for Sacred Heart, they were down 15.  By this time, it was too late.  Ohio State had found its stroke, eventually winning by 14.

The Buckeyes advance to the second round for the first time in three years under Jim Foster.  They face Mississippi State, the surprise winner of the 6-11 matchup against the Texas Longhorns.  As this is Mississippi State we’re talking about, locals in Columbus might want to getcha spittoons ready.  By the way, if you didn’t already know, Mississippi State has a player named Chanel Makongo, who is from… wait for it… Congo.  Yes, “Chanel Makongo from the Congo”.  ESPN’s studio crew has not shut up about that for the past 5 hours.

Other Observations

• Ohio State outrebounded Sacred Heart 33-29.  This is nothing exceptional or mind-boggling, but it serves as a useful case of contrast for the 51-33, 21-6 thing that happened last night.  I still can’t get over that a bunch of pencilnecks could do that.
• Samantha Prahalis had a career high in points, finishing with 23 points and 7 assists.  There are times out there where she looks like Jason Kidd.
• Maria Moeller finished 4/7 from the field, basically all from the perimeter where she was 4/6.  She finished with 12 points.  Compare and contrast with Jon Diebler’s performance last night.
• There is no stopping Jantel Lavender, she finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds.