No. 6 Ohio St. 74, Virginia 46

By foxsports
Published

Virginia coach Debbie Ryan knew exactly what to expect from Jantel Lavender, and the senior center showed why.

Lavender had 23 points and 13 rebounds, Samantha Prahalis added 14 points and eight assists and No. 6 Ohio State beat Virginia 74-46 on Thursday night in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Lavender was 7 for 8 from the floor in the first half and finished 10 for 15. She also became the Buckeyes' career rebounding leader with 1,121.

''I had a chance to coach Jantel this spring with the USA Basketball program, so I knew how good she was and how well she finishes,'' Ryan said. ''She had a really good game. I thought the players around her really hurt us more than anything. Tayler Hill and Sam both played really well.''

Ohio State (6-0), which hosts No. 11 Oklahoma on Sunday, jumped out to a 21-7 lead in the first 8 minutes before the Cavaliers (4-4) whittled the deficit to 25-22 on a consecutive 3-pointers by Lexie Gordon with 4:53 left in the half.

With the score 28-24, the Buckeyes went on a 12-2 run to go into halftime with a 40-26 lead.

''When it got cut to four, I thought we got a little tired,'' Ryan said. ''We weren't able to sustain anything in the first half and it ended up ballooning in the last 2 minutes to 14. It's really tough to come in down 14 to a top-10 team.''

Ohio State dominated inside in the first half, with a 28-8 advantage in the paint.

''We caught a rhythm at the end of the first half,'' Prahalis said, ''hitting shots and playing our basketball.''

Simone Egwu had 11 points and Gordon 10 for the Cavaliers, who played their fourth straight ranked opponent. They host Drexel on Saturday.

The closest Virginia got in the second half was 48-36 with 12 minutes left. Ohio State increased the lead to 18 in the next 3 minutes.

''We did a good job on the boards,'' Ohio State coach Jim Foster said. ''We did a very good job defensively.''

The Cavaliers committed 16 of their 21 fouls in the second half, when the Buckeyes went 13 for 18 from the line.

''Their post players were really physical,'' Lavender said. ''They were jamming it in a little bit. We said they were pretty much like bulldozer-type players.''

Lavender was happy that Ohio State beat an ACC team for the first time in four tries in the inter-conference series.

''It's really important to win this challenge because the ACC has a tendency to think the Big Ten teams can't contend with them,'' Lavender said. ''I root for all the Big Ten teams to win these challenges.''