Ohio State vs Duke: Buckeyes unable to overcome rebounding woes in NCAA Tournament loss
Rebounding has been the Ohio State women's basketball team's biggest shortcoming all season.
The No. 2 seed Buckeyes (26-6) were outrebounded in 18 games this season, including Sunday's 75-63 loss to No. 7 seed Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils had a 38-20 edge on the boards.
"We really broke down with our rebounding," Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said. "I think our offensive execution, our rebounding, were the keys in us not being able to win."
Like many aspects of Ohio State's game against Duke on Sunday, the rebounding looked solid in the first quarter. Grabbing seven rebounds, the Buckeyes recorded almost half of their overall game total in the first 10 minutes of play.
Cotie McMahon led Ohio State with five rebounds. Duke had four players that equaled or bettered that total, including 6-foot-3 freshman Delaney Thomas with a game-high of eight.
"They were prominent on getting on the glass," Ohio State guard Celeste Taylor said. "They outrebounded us by a lot. So, I think they were just trying to stay within their principals, and that kind of flipped on us."
McGuff realized Duke's size advantage would be a factor. The Blue Devils played three different players standing 6 feet 3 or taller. Rebeka Mikulasikova and Taiyier Parks were the only Buckeyes on Sunday who match up height-wise, though Parks saw only about three minutes of playing time.
"They had some big baskets around the rim," McGuff said. "Throwing it into (Kennedy) Brown late in the game, and that hurt. She was getting really deep, good position."
Ohio State allowed Duke to be the aggressors on the offensive boards. Recording eight offensive rebounds, the Blue Devils were able to either score quick put-back buckets or draw fouls.
Three Ohio State players fouled out, including Taylor with over six minutes left in the game.
Duke had two more free throw attempts than the Buckeyes did with 29, but what really hurt Ohio State was shooting only 66.7% from the foul line compared to the Blue Devils' 88.2%. Overall, the Blue Devils scored six additional points off free throws.
"In a close game, obviously that matters," McGuff said. "We got to the free throw line enough. We could have capitalized a little bit more, and then we needed to keep them off the line."
Unlike their Big Ten Tournament loss, when the game was out of reach from basically the second quarter on, this game was in the Buckeyes' control for over 28 minutes. But they fell apart in the second half.
Offensively, Ohio State went from 51.9% shooting in the first half to 29.6% in the second. McMahon put a respectable 27-point performance, but even she started to slow down in the final minutes.
"I just don't think we finished a lot of the time," Taylor said. "Cotie had a good spurt in there, driving into the basket. They were a little bit taller than us down there, so it's hard to get those foul calls. But it's basketball, everybody's going to go on their own run, we just couldn't pull through in the end."
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State outrebounded by Duke in NCAA Tournament second-round loss
