Ohio State Women's Basketball Suffers Blowout Loss to Iowa, 105-72, in the Big Ten Tournament Championship

After Ohio State completed a 24-point comeback – the largest in Big Ten Tournament history – to knock off top-seeded Indiana on Saturday, the Buckeyes suffered a 105-72 blowout loss to No. 2-seeded Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament championship on Sunday.

Ohio State trailed by as many as 38 points in the finals matchup as Caitlin Clark proved herself worthy of Naismith Women's Player of the Year recognition. The veteran Hawkeye guard recorded a triple-double with 30 points, 10 rebounds and 17 assists in her team's victory over the Buckeyes – a performance that mirrored her triple-double effort to defeat Ohio State, 83-72. in Columbus six weeks prior on Jan. 23.

Big Ten Freshman of the Year Cotie McMahon led the Buckeyes with 23 points and seven rebounds in the contest. Taylor Mikesell (24) and Taylor Thierry (13) were the only other Ohio State players to finish in double figures, while Rikki Harris, Jacy Sheldon and Rebeka Mikulasikova could not contribute much offensively.

With the loss, Ohio State will now wait until March 12 to receive their seed for the NCAA Tournament. The Buckeyes were projected as the final No. 3 seed by the women's basketball selection committee on Feb. 23. However, their performance at the Big Ten Tournament will surely create conversation about where the team will end up next Sunday.

First Quarter

Ohio State and Iowa battled back and forth for the first five minutes of the contest, trading made baskets from inside the paint and behind the arc before the initial media timeout, at which point Iowa held a 10-7 lead.

From that point forward, it was all Iowa for the remainder of the quarter. The Hawkeyes went on a 10-0 run over the next two minutes of action, extending their lead to 20-7 and forcing Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff to burn his first timeout. The Buckeyes responded with a layup from Thierry on their second possession out of the brief break, but the Hawkeyes answered with two made baskets and two free throws to enter the second with a 24-9 lead.

Thierry and Mikesell were Ohio State's only scorers in the opening frame. Thierry contributed five points on 2-of-4 shooting with a 3-pointer, while Mikesell added four points from two layups. Meanwhile, Harris, McMahon, Sheldon, Mikulasikova and Eboni Walker combined to shoot 0 for 12 from the floor, as the Buckeyes made only 22.2% of their attempts and 14.3% of their threes in the quarter.

Second Quarter

Iowa continued its dominance in the second quarter and jumped out to a 10-2 run in the first 1:23 of play to take a 34-11 lead. McGuff used his second timeout in an attempt to rally his players, but that attempt was unsuccessful.

After the players returned to the court, the Hawkeyes extended their lead to 44-15 before Iowa called a timeout of their own at 5:01 to make substitutions. During that stretch, Iowa made five of six shots while Ohio State went cold and missed all nine attempts from the floor. The Buckeyes' only points came from McMahon, Sheldon and Hevynne Bristow – all of which came at the free throw line.

When the clock hit triple zeroes inside the Target Center, indicating halftime and sending Ohio State to its locker room for a much-needed break from Iowa's offensive onslaught, the Hawkeyes led by 37 points, 61-24.

Ohio State ended the first half 9-of-36 shooting (25.1%) with a 2-of-15 mark (13.3%) from the 3-point line. On the other hand, Iowa made 21 of 29 shots (72.4%) and five of eight threes (62.5%) as Clark shined with 23 points, five rebounds and nine assists. Monika Czinano added 17 points and seven boards to the Hawkeyes' efforts.

Third Quarter

If there was any hope for Ohio State to start another historic comeback in the second half, Iowa put that to rest with another round of efficient play on both ends of the floor. The Buckeyes outscored the Hawkeyes 30-22 in the frame, but the eight-point difference only cut Iowa's lead to 83-54 after three quarters.

Clark's push for a triple-double began after the intermission. She scored five points and added two rebounds and four assists to bump her stat totals to 28 points, seven rebounds and 13 assists after three quarters.

For Ohio State, Mikesell (11) and McMahon (10) came alive and combined for 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting and a 6-of-7 mark from the free throw line. Their contributions turned out to be the only source of offense in the quarter, as Theirry (six) and Emma Shumate (three) were the only other Buckeyes to score in the frame.

Fourth Quarter

Clark secured her triple-double near the midway point of the fourth quarter as Iowa pushed back 100 team points in the contest. Czinano also continued to be a sensational No. 2 to Clark and scored eight points on 4-of-4 shooting in the frame. Czinano finished the game with 26 points and seven rebounds.

McMahon and Mikesell were once again the only players McGuff could rely on to score offensively. The pair of Buckeyes had multiple made baskets in the fourth with McMahon making multiple trips to the charity stripe. Still, their efforts were for naught as Ohio State saw its deficit increase to as many as 38 points in the final quarter.

For the contest, Ohio State made only 34.8% of its field goal attempts and 31% of its 3-pointers. The Buckeyes were also outrebounded by the Hawkeyes, 44-28, and were outscored 52-24 in the paint.

Game Notes

• Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff started the same players for the seventh game in a row: Rikki Harris, Taylor Mikesell, Taylor Thierry, Cotie McMahon and Eboni Walker.
• The Buckeyes' most recent Big Ten Tournament championship came during the 2017-18 season in Kevin McGuff's fifth season as head coach of the women's basketball program. That year's Ohio State team reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament and finished with a 28-7 record with a 13-3 mark in conference play.
• Before Ohio State's matchup with Iowa in Minneapolis, the Buckeyes had won five Big Ten Tournament championships: 2005-06, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2017-18.