Big Ten women: Maryland holds off Ohio State
jradtke@dailyherald.com
Maryland completed its run through the Big Ten women's basketball season Sunday, hanging on to win the conference tournament championship game 77-74 over Ohio State at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates.
Leading by as many as 15 points early in the second half, the No. 4 Terrapins (30-2) withstood an Ohio State rally and survived when a 3-point attempt at the buzzer to tie by OSU freshman Kelsey Mitchell was just short.
Maryland, in its first season in the Big Ten, not only earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with the win but quite possibly a No. 1 seed as well. The Terps have won 24 straight, their last loss coming Dec 3 against Notre Dame.
"What a phenomenal game," said Maryland coach Brenda Frese, whose team went 18-0 during the Big Ten regular season. "Neither team deserved to lose that game. We definitely had to earn it."
Sophomore Lexie Brown, the daughter of former NBA player and current Sacramento Kings assistant coach Dee Brown, led Maryland with 19 points and 6 assists and was voted the tournament's most outstanding player. Her 2 free throws with four seconds to play provided the Terps the final margin.
"Ohio State is an amazing team with an amazing player in Kelsey Mitchell," Brown said. "I'm just really proud of my team for withstanding their run at the end."
Mitchell scored a game-high 31 points for the unranked Buckeyes (23-10), but Ohio State couldn't overcome Maryland's 49-28 rebounding dominance, including 22-5 on the offensive glass.
"She's a great player and a special kid," said OSU coach Kevin McGuff of Mitchell. "She competes as hard as any player I've ever coached."
The Terrapins, who reached the Final Four last year, outscored Ohio State 9-2 over the final 3:08 of the first half to open up a 42-34 lead at the break, then extended the lead to as much as 52-37 on a layup from senior Lauren Mincy (12 points) with 16:02 left to play.
But even though Ohio State inched its way back into the game, the Buckeyes could never take the lead. They did close to within 75-74 with one minute left on a 3-pointer from junior Cait Craft, but after Mincy missed a shot with 30 seconds left, Mitchell was called for traveling with seven seconds to go and Brown calmly made 2 free throws with four seconds left for the final margin.
"From where we were when we started in November we've come a long way," McGuff said. "We played really hard in this tournament. We had a chance and an opportunity tonight. It just didn't go our way."
Shatori Walker-Kimbrough had 13 points for Maryland, while junior Malina Howard added 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Terps, who won despite shooting just 39 percent (28-for-71).
All-tournament selection Alexa Hart added 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Ameryst Alston had 11 points for the Buckeyes, who finished 27-for-57 from the field (47 percent).