Ohio State Cruises Past No. 14 Seed George Washington 87-45 in the NCAA Tournament First Round

Ohio State began NCAA Tournament play with a bang, trouncing No. 14 seed George Washington 87-45 to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the third-straight season.

Normally a team that leans on its guards and uptempo play, Ohio State's size and post play was the difference, especially early. The Buckeyes went with the bigger lineup they used in the Big Ten Tournament when starting guard Asia Doss was out, even though Doss was healthy.

"Asia's back, I thought she played really good today – gave us great minutes, but we had played this lineup here for a little while now, obviously in the tournament, so I decided to stick with it," Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff said. "I did think it would be the right lineup for today's game."

Stephanie Mavunga and Alexa Hart started together down low, giving the Buckeyes a pair of long post players, with Linnae Harper joining them as a hybrid guard-forward. Together, the trio owned the post, led by Mavunga who finished the game with 22 points and 13 rebounds. Harper and Hart also finished in double figures, scoring 11 and 10 respectively.

"That was one point of emphasis for us, that I thought we had an advantage around the basket," McGuff said. "We had talked about and worked on throwing the ball inside."

The trio helped Ohio State dominate the post. The Buckeyes held nearly a 2-1 advantage on the glass, outrebounding George Washington 51-26. They also outscored Colonials 46-20 in the paint.

With their scoring contributions, Kelsey Mitchell's scoring was hardly needed. The program's all-time leading scorer didn't reach double figures until the fourth quarter, when her team was already up 30 points. She finished with just 11 points, but had seven assists and four rebounds.

“I thought she did a really good job putting other people in position to score She had seven assists and played really efficiently that way," McGuff said after the game. "That’s the thing that makes her special: she’s capable of putting up 30 points on a given night, or she’s capable of helping other people score.”

The Buckeyes hopped off to a quick 8-2 lead thanks to dominant play inside, but George Washington punched back to make it 10-10, holding Ohio State scoreless for over four minutes. The Buckeyes closed the quarter strong though, scoring five straight and ending the quarter with a deep three from Mitchell to take a 17-12 lead into the second quarter.

McGuff said he noticed his team feeling a bit of rust after nearly two weeks had passed since their last game.

"I felt just in the first quarter, it wasn't bad, be we were just a little out of synch," McGuff said. "I thought Kelsey's three at end end of the quarter was really big from a momentum standpoint. After that I thought we played pretty well though."

The Ohio State lead grew gradually in the second. The Buckeyes never really went on a run, but outscored George Washington 22-15 in the quarter thanks to scoring contributions from six different players.

The Buckeyes took over in the second half. Ohio State opened the second half with a 13-2 run to take a 52-29 lead, and the Buckeyes never relented. As the score grew, so did Ohio State's aggressiveness as the Buckeyes went to a full court press and forced four third-quarter turnovers to stretch the lead from large to an insurmountable 64-34.

With the game well at hand, Ohio State coasted. Jensen Caretti played the entire quarter off the bench, finishing with 11 game minutes. She was joined by former walk-ons Savitha Jayaraman and Karlie Cronin – both of whom scored in the game – as the Buckeyes closed the game out, coming away with a 87-45 win.

With the win, Ohio State advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the third-straight season where the Buckeyes will take on No. 11 seed Central Michigan on Monday night at 6:30 after the Chippewas defeated No. 6 seed LSU 78-69.