Despite tremendous efforts by star guards Kelsey Mitchell and Ameryst Alston, the fifth-seeded Ohio State women’s basketball team fell to fourth-seeded North Carolina, 86-84, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament Monday in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Mitchell, who scored 21 of her 25 points in the second half, nailed a pair of free throws with 5.1 seconds left to tie the game and complete a 23-point comeback for her team.
The Buckeyes elected to not guard the person inbounding the ball, however, and freshman Jamie Cherry got a full head of steam to nearly go the length of the court before hitting a midrange jumper with 0.6 seconds remaining. Ohio State then got the ball to Mitchell, but she was unable to get a shot off before the buzzer as members on the Tar Hell bench ran onto the court in celebration.
While Mitchell, the Big Ten’s Co-Player of the Year and nation’s leading scorer at 24.9 points per game, struggled with her shot in the first half, Ohio State was paced by Alston, who finished with a game-high 30 points on 11-of-22 shooting.
The Buckeyes (24-11) withstood an early run from the Tar Heels (26-8), but still trailed 20-15 at the under-12 timeout in the first half. A 16-5 run caused coach Kevin McGuff to burn his third timeout at the 6:24-mark, as the Tar Heels buried five of their first eight 3-point attempts to build a 20-point lead.
Alston scored the last five points of the half to make the score 50-32 at halftime. The 50 points were tied for the most North Carolina had scored in any first half this season. Stephanie Mavunga scored 16 of her career-high 27 points in the opening 20 minutes for the Tar Heels.
A frenetic pace was the theme all game — both teams average more than 75 points per game —and Ohio State was able to cut what was a 23-point lead to 10 after Alexa Hart’s and-one with 8:15 to play.
Mitchell nailed a 3-pointer to tie the game at 82 with 40 seconds remaining, but Ohio State’s inability to stop Cherry in the closing seconds closed the book on a somewhat overachieving season.
McGuff kicked senior Raven Ferguson off the team in October, and saw Makayla Waterman, Kianna Holland and Chelsea Mitchell all suffer torn ACLs once practice got underway. That left him with just eight scholarship players to work with, one of whom being graduate senior Amy Scullion, who he asked back after she left the program a year ago to pursue medical school.
Kelsey Mitchell broke the NCAA single-season record for most 3-pointers in a season with her game-tying shot in the final minute, and also set a new mark for most consecutive games with a 3-pointer in the loss.
Ohio State made on 5-of-20 3-pointers in the game, while North Carolina nailed 8-of-17. Allisha Gray scored 20 points for the Tar Heels, while Brittany Rountree finished with 15 on five 3-pointers.
