Ohio State was without half of its high-scoring duo Friday afternoon with Ameryst Alston out after sustaining a wrist injury in the Big Ten Tournament two weeks ago. With Alston on the bench, the Buckeyes lacked backcourt depth, veteran leadership and her 18.6 point per game – it didn't matter. The Buckeyes thrashed Buffalo 88-69 setting up a second round matchup with No. 6 seed West Virginia Sunday.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio State | 30 | 18 | 22 | 18 | 88 |
| Buffalo | 11 | 12 | 21 | 25 | 69 |
When the Buckeyes last played without Alston, they were trounced by Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament. What made this game different?
"Our intensity, our focus and our concentration," said Kelsey Mitchell after the game. "Especially our defense. We broke them down in the first half and did what was asked by coach."
It wasn't always pretty, however. At the start, the Buckeye offense looked anemic without Alston. The team had trouble with Buffalo's press and trailed Bulls until over halfway through the first quarter, but things changed in a hurry. Ohio State closed the quarter on a 22-1 run led, of course, by their star in Mitchell.
Mitchell started the game like the rest of her team – cold. The team's leading scorer opened 0-5 from the field and was the last starter to put up points. It took her over 7 minutes, but as always, she heated up. Mitchell closed the quarter by draining five consecutive shots, totaling 13 points. She topped Buffalo's quarter total in three minutes.
The rest of the game went about as scripted – Ohio State continued to pour it on, and Buffalo had no response. Mitchell continued to score, totaling a game-high 27 on the day. In Alston's absence, Asia Doss and Shayla Cooper picked up the scoring slack. Cooper, making her ninth start of the season in place of Alston, scored 17 points on a 6-12 shooting performance. Doss scored 16, a career high, nine of which came in the first quarter when Mitchell's shots weren't falling.
"If I'm open, I'm going to shoot it," said Doss with a laugh, when asked about filling in for Alston offensively.
If you were looking for a downside, it was the free throw shooting. Ohio State is typically a good free throw shooting team but today they managed just 54 percent from the line. Against good teams, that could cost them.
The win pits Ohio State against No. 6 seed West Virginia, Sunday afternoon. Alston's status remains to be seen, but if the Buckeyes play like they did tonight she may very well get an extra week to recover. However, Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff gave the indication that Alston will play Sunday.
"She's made progress and we might have been able to get her in there today," said McGuff on Alston's status. "I was hoping to get her a little bit more rest – it was a bit of a gamble but we were obviously able to get through today's game without her. I'm still optimistic she'll be able to help us on Sunday."
