Ohio State women’s basketball is 10-0 for the first time in 11 years, and it’s ranked as one of the best teams in the country as a result.
The Buckeyes remain third in this week’s AP Top 25, behind only South Carolina and Stanford, after improving to 10-0 on Sunday with a 74-68 win over Michigan State in their conference opener.
Before Sunday, the Buckeyes had won all of their first nine games by double digits, including a pair of wins over ranked opponents (Tennessee and Louisville, though neither of them are currently ranked) and a 92-36 win over New Hampshire on Thursday in which the Buckeyes allowed only seven second-half points. Sunday’s game against the Spartans was the first time all year that a game came down to the wire, as Ohio State led by only one point with less than a minute remaining, but the Buckeyes scored seven of the game’s final nine points to close out a victory and remain unbeaten.
Ohio State has been particularly elite on the defensive end, forcing at least 20 turnovers in all of their first 10 games for an average of 27.3 turnovers forced per game that ranks third in Division I, while five different Buckeyes – Taylor Mikesell, Rebeka Mikulasikova, Jacy Sheldon, Taylor Thierry and Madison Greene – have double-digit scoring averages. Sheldon has missed five of the Buckeyes’ last six games with a foot injury, but Ohio State has continued its winning ways even without one of its best players.
The Buckeyes are off to their best start for a season since the 2011-12 campaign, when Ohio State won its first 15 games of the year before finishing the season 25-7 and falling in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Ohio State will look to continue its winning ways when it hosts Albany at the Schottenstein Center on Friday (6:30 p.m., BTN+), after which it will head to San Diego to play South Florida and either Arkansas or Oregon in next week’s San Diego Invitational.
