No. 17 Ohio State women fall to Michigan on the road after a closely contested matchup
In the final game of 2023 for No. 17 ranked Ohio State, the Buckeyes suffered a tough Big Ten road loss against Michigan. The low-scoring affair saw 11 lead changes, and OSU ended up falling 69-60.
Celeste Taylor recorded a season-high 16 points with Taylor Thierry contributing 15 points and nine boards. It was an admittedly sloppy game for the Buckeyes, who as a whole recorded 19 turnovers while forcing a season-low of 15.
"The turnovers were huge," said Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff. "Anytime we got a lead and had the chance to pull ahead or maybe put the game away, we would turn the ball over and they would get easy baskets on the other end."
Taylor gave the Buckeyes their first lead of the game when she turned an early steal into a layup. That would be Ohio State's only bucket through the first six minutes of play, as the Wolverines were quick to answer with a 9-0 run. During this time, Ohio State lost three back-to-back possessions to offensive fouls, two of those charged to Cotie McMahon.
The game never got out of reach for Ohio State due to the efforts of Thierry, who went on a 7-0 run of her own to cut Michigan's advantage to 13-12 by the end of the first quarter.
Building off the momentum provided by Thierry, the Buckeyes came out in the second with three quick baskets to take back the lead. Theirry and Taylor accounted for 21 of the Buckeyes 26 first half points, while the rest of Ohio State's starters recorded four.
"We have to get everybody involved," McGuff said. "We have a lot of good players and it's just a little bit inconsistent now and we've got to get some consistency."
Toward the end of the half, the game turned into a back-and-forth matchup, with the two squads exchanging the lead five times in the last three and a half minutes before halftime. Going into the locker room, the Wolverines were on top 27-26.
Laura Phelia, Michigan's leading scorer with 26 points, began the third quarter by extending her team's advantage with two fast buckets. The Wolverines continued to build their lead all the way to nine, but things turned around for the Buckeyes when McMahon put her first points of the day to start an Ohio State 13-0 run.
At this point, the Buckeyes were getting a strong contribution from Rikki Harris off the bench, who recorded five of her 10 points during the 13-point run.
"I knew they were going to go on a run, I knew we were going to go on a run," Harris said. "We just needed a little more time, and we didn't have it."
It was the Buckeyes who finished the quarter in front, 45-42, but keeping with the tight battle this game was, it did not take long for Michigan retake the advantage. As the squads continued to trade leads, the Wolverines took the lead for good when Jordan Hobbs hit a pullup jumper with 5:54 left.
While the Buckeyes never allowed their opponents to pull ahead more by more than 10 points in the final quarter, Michigan capitalized on their eight made free throws in the closing minutes of the game to pick up the victory.
The Buckeyes will have another chance against Michigan when they come to Value City Arena on Feb. 28 for Ohio State's final home game of the season.
"People say you want to play your best basketball at the end of February, beginning of March, going into April," Taylor said. "We do know there's a long road ahead of us. We don't want to take any losses, but we can learn from them and get them out of the way now."
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State women fall to Michigan on the road
