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Nicole Cardano-Hillary led a balanced attack with 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and No. 14 Indiana moved within a game of making Big Ten Conference history with a 70-62 win over No. 13 Ohio State in the semifinals on Saturday.
If the fifth-seeded Hoosiers can beat the winner of the Nebraska-Iowa game in Sunday’s championship game they will become the first team to win four straight to win the tournament.
Indiana was a five-seed in 2002 when it won the title but there were fewer teams in the league and hasn’t been back to the title game since.
Ali Patberg scored 15 points for the Hoosiers (22-7), Mackenzie Holmes had 12, Chloe Moore-McNeil 11 and Grace Berger 10. Berger had six rebounds and seven assists and Cardano-Hillary had five assists as Indiana had 20 helpers on 24 baskets.
Jacy Sheldon scored 22 points for top-seeded Ohio State (23-6), league co-champion with Iowa, and Taylor Mikesell and Braxtin Miller had 12 apiece.
The Buckeyes never led and fell behind 38-28 late in the second quarter before Mikesell hit a jumper. The lead stayed around 10 in the third quarter but a Mikesell 3-pointer and Miller fast-break layup pulled Ohio State within 49-44. Berger answered with a jumper and four free throws restored the lead, which was 57-48 going into the fourth quarter.
Twice the lead got to 13 before a Miller 3 and two Sheldon layups had Ohio State within 68-62 with a minute left but the Buckeyes missed their last three shots.
Indiana went 5 of 10 from 3-point range to 4 of 21 for Ohio State but the Hoosiers were 17 of 23 from the foul line — although five of the misses were in the fourth quarter — while Ohio State was 4 for 4.
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Down 43-29 to start the second half, Ohio State got the production it was looking for from its leaders — until Indiana responded with all the force of a top-10 team.
The No. 20 Buckeyes switched to a zone to open the second half, forcing a couple Hoosier misses to get Ohio State back into the game. Braxtin Miller scored a layup and Jacy Sheldon hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to nine in the opening minute of the third quarter. But turnovers and poor shooting allowed Indiana to blow open its lead once again.
The 43-34 deficit was the closest Ohio State (7-2, 1-1 Big Ten) would get in the second half. The No. 10 Hoosiers (8-2, 2-0 Big Ten) went on a 17-3 run as Ohio State missed its next eight shots after Sheldon’s triple and eventually lost to Indiana 86-66 on Sunday night at Value City Arena.
Jacy Sheldon led the Buckeyes with 23 points on 9-of-24 shooting, including 4-for-6 from beyond the arc, and turned the ball over four times with one assist. Taylor Mikesell added 15 points. Kateri Poole scored nine points with seven assists and five turnovers.
The big three of Mackenzie Holmes, Grace Berger and Nicole Cardano-Hillary dominated the Buckeyes. Holmes scored 30 points, followed by Berger’s 21 and Cardano-Hillary’s 17.
The start of the second half was the theme of the Ohio State’s first game this season against a ranked opponent. Just about any time it looked like the Buckeyes could claw their way back to drawing even, the Hoosiers pulled away.
And the main culprit was turnovers that were both self-inflicted and forced by a stellar Indiana defense.
“The turnovers really killed us,” coach Kevin McGuff said. “Even to start the second half, I thought we had a great start on the defensive end … but then, man. It’s not only turnovers, but turnovers leading to points.”
Indiana began the game on a 10-0 run that saw Ohio State miss its first five shots with five turnovers. During the stretch, Poole was called for an offensive foul, was blocked, and traveled. When she connected on a 3-point shot to trim the deficit to 14-7 with 2:18 left in the first quarter, Indiana leading scorer Mackenzie Holmes drilled one on the other end.
Despite the slow start and seven turnovers, the Buckeyes made five of their next six shots and were down just 19-15 after one quarter. Led by Cardano-Hillary, Indiana began the quarter on a 9-2 run before a layup from Rebeka Mikulasikova as a part of an 8-1 run by Ohio State put the Buckeyes back within four with 4:34 remaining in the half.
However, the Hoosiers went on another 7-0 run, beginning with Cardano-Hillary splashing a corner 3-pointer. Poole answered with one of her own to make it 36-28 Indiana, but her celebration of shooting an arrow after the made basket delayed her getting back on defense. Poole then fouled Kiandra Browne, who made the basket.
Ohio State shrunk a 26-point deficit with 1:27 left in the third quarter down to 14 points with 7:50 to go, mostly due to committing just one turnover in the final 11:52 of the game compared to 16 before that. But Ohio State couldn’t make enough stops to make up for mistakes earlier in the game. The Hoosiers turned those 17 turnovers into 26 points.
“In the first half we had way too many (turnovers) and we had trouble coming back from that,” Sheldon said. “We fought the whole game, but we didn’t take care of the ball well enough.”
As the point guard, Poole will always be scrutinized, good and bad. But turnovers are a team problem.
McGuff said Poole is improving and has the talent to be a reliable point guard, but against a tough team like Indiana, it’ll take a committee to replace injured point guard Madison Greene’s ball-handling.
“She’s still got to continue to grow and get better, and she’s doing that,” McGuff said. “Tonight was just a tough game and their defense is very good. We had some unforced errors but also a lot had to do with them playing excellent defense.”
McGuff called Indiana a legitimate Final Four contender last week. Ohio State is still assessing where it is after a 20-point home loss in its first ranked game this season.