Hawkeyes come up short in OT, fall to #8 Ohio State

Trailing by 12 points with just 98 seconds to play, it seemed the Hawkeyes’ upset bid was going to fall short, allowing the eighth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes to secure a President’s Day victory without much late-game drama. The ending to regulation, and subsequent overtime period (yes, overtime) was anything, but uneventful.

Jan Jensen’s squad showed loads of fight, going on an improbably 17-5 run, including some three-point heroics from Lucy Olsen to force overtime. The furious rally made things interesting, but the Buckeyes (22-3, 11-3) responded, outscoring the Hawkeyes (18-8, 8-7) 12-3 in overtime to pull out an 86-78 and snap Iowa’s six-game winning streak. Despite the loss, it wasn’t an empty trip to Columbus. Battling foul trouble, cold first half shooting and more, the Hawkeyes showed, again, that they can compete with the Big Ten’s best.

“They battled and they’ve been battling all year,” said assistant coach Raina Harmon on the postgame radio show. “It’s unfortunate that we came up short in this one, especially being able to force the team to overtime on their home floor.”

Early in the game, the Hawkeyes weren’t seeing many shots go in on the offensive end of the floor. They scored a season-low 21 points in the first half and shot just 29.6% from the floor. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes, who had been struggling from three-point range, were able to knock down four first quarter threes to build a 22-12 advantage.

While Iowa’s shooting fortunes didn’t improve in the second quarter, they ratcheted up the defense, holding OSU to 12 points on 3/11 shooting. A 34-21 halftime deficit wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t insurmountable.

Right off the bat in the second half, the hill to climb grew to 14 points, with a three-pointer from Chance Gray pushing the OSU lead to 37-23, but the Hawkeyes never felt like they were out of the game. They chipped away at the Buckeyes lead, outscoring them 23-17 in the third quarter.

Then, early in the fourth, Iowa was able to cut the deficit to 53-51 with 7:34 to play, and 57-54 with 5:57 to play. Kylie Feuerbach was critical during that stretch, knocking down a pair of threes and scoring eight points. Their attempt at an upset seemed to be thwarted when Ohio State responded with a 12-3 run over a span of 4:19, building seemingly comfortable 69-57 lead with just 98 seconds remaining.

With little left to lose, the Hawkeyes started heaving up three-pointers. Aaliyah Guyton’s rainbow three from the corner was followed up by three contested triples from Lucy Olsen. A forced turnover led to a Syd Affolter basket, plus the foul kept the flurry going, but the Buckeyes helped the cause going 5/10 at the line down the stretch. In the closing seconds, Olsen managed to earn a trip the free throw line and sent the game to overtime tied at 74, knocking down a pair of free ones with 3.6 to play.

“Maybe she didn’t have a great first two quarters, but she was able to lock back in,” said Harmon. “I thought she did some great things down the stretch.”

In overtime, the Hawkeyes threw the first punch with a take to the basket from Olsen after a defensive stop, but were unable to take advantage. They came up empty on three consecutive possessions and relinquished control.

Jaloni Cambridge and Cotie McMahon combined for 54 points and hit the big shots for OSU in OT. Cambridge gave the Buckeyes the lead with a midrange jumper, while McMahon’s basket, plus the foul knocked Syd Affolter out of the game. Taylor Thierry added a transition bucket and that was it for the Hawkeyes upset bid. OSU tacked on some free throws to pick up the 86-78 win.

For the game, Iowa shot 26 of 62 (41.9%) from the floor and 9 of 25 (36.0%) from three-point range. Lucy Olsen led the way with 27 points, seven assists, while Syd Affolter put up a double-double, 11 points and 15 rebounds. Kylie Feuerbach (12), Hannah Stuelke (10) and Aaliyah Guyton (9) also added notable contributions. The Hawkeyes outrebounded the Buckeyes 41-34 and ‘limited’ themselves to 20 turnovers, which below OSU’s average (24.4).

Up Next: The Hawkeyes return to Iowa City for a high-profile matchup against the #3 UCLA Bruins on Sunday. Tipoff is set for 1:00pm CT on Peacock.