Fourteen minutes into the first half of last night’s women’s basketball game between Michigan and No. 5 Ohio State, Buckeyes senior Caity Matter hit her first 3-pointer of the game. Just 32 seconds later, she dropped in her second trey in a row, forcing Michigan coach Cheryl Burnett to call a timeout, her second in a span of less than 50 seconds.
But nothing could cool down Matter, who ended the contest with a game-high 28 points. She drained three more 3-pointers in the next two minutes, leading Ohio State (3-1 Big Ten, 15-2 overall) on a 24-2 run to a 84-56 victory over the Wolverines..
“My teammates were getting me in the spots, and they were making a nice pass,” Matter said. “I was getting some open looks, and they happened to go in. It felt good, but it felt better to go out there and win.”
The Buckeyes appeared to be unstoppable from all over the court. While shooting 50 percent from behind the arc, Ohio State made 34 of 60 shots — the best anyone has fired off against the Wolverines this year.
Michigan (0-5, 4-12) was at a loss while trying to guard the Buckeyes. Ohio State’s offense looked like a well oiled machine moving the ball around the hardwood. The team had 26 assists on the night, thanks in part to sophomore Brandie Hoskins, who added seven assists for the Buckeyes.
“Sometimes it’s a very simple game that people can complicate,” Ohio State coach Jim Foster said. “We complicated it early. But once we started spacing and moving the ball, we had not only some good looks around the perimeter but some good one-on-one opportunities in the post.”
Michigan hung close at start of the game due to a strong free-throw shooting performance. The Wolverines made eight of their first 10 shots from the charity stripe, which accounted for half of their offensive production in the game’s first 12 minutes. Michigan grabbed a lead with 7:17 left when freshman Ta’Shia Walker received a pass from sophomore Kelly Helvey and drilled a trey to give a 19-17 advantage to the Wolverines.
That was Michigan’s last lead of the night. The team was held to just six more points for the rest of the half. Another poor shooting performance hurt the Wolverines, and they ended the half shooting just 29.2 percent.
“The wheels fall off when we start not doing what we need to do offensively,” Burnett said. “We did pretty well executing early to keep the close, and then, all of the sudden, we don’t execute, we start standing.”
Troubles on both ends of the court seemed to get to the Wolverines. With the Buckeyes taking command of the game in such a short period of time, Michigan began to turn the ball over and force shots that it should not have taken.
“Something on the floor that I don’t like to see that I’ve seen is players looking frustrated and looking kind of pouty,” Burnett said. “To me the game is not over until it is 0:00.”
The second half was no less frustrating for the Wolverines. Although the team did shoot much better from the floor — 42.9 percent — nothing stopped the Ohio State offense. During the second half, the Buckeyes took a lead as great as 36 points despite an improved effort by Michigan, especially senior Tabitha Pool. Pool scored 16 second-half points after having a dreadful 1-for-10 shooting performance in the first half.