Ohio State women’s basketball in four-way tie atop Big Ten after Illinois win

On Feb 15, 2022

Ohio State guard Rikki Harris scored a career-high against Illinois in January. She topped that mark on Monday as the Buckeyes continued their winning ways.

The Ohio State women’s basketball team is very much in control of its own destiny when it comes to securing a share of the Big Ten regular-season championship heading into a pivotal matchup on Thursday at Maryland.

The No. 18 Buckeyes (19-4, 11-3 Big Ten) took care of Illinois (6-15, 1-9) at State Farm Arena in Champaign on Monday night, 86-67, with a third-quarter explosion, a career-high 17 points from Rikki Harris, and 22 points from leading scorer Jacy Sheldon on 9-for-14 shooting.

With the win, Ohio State moved into a four-way tie for first place in the Big Ten with Maryland, Michigan and Indiana, after the Hoosiers were upset by Nebraska on Monday. While there’s a tie in terms of games back, Indiana is still ahead in winning percentage with a game in hand against those three teams but will play the same number of Big Ten games by the end of the regular season.

After Maryland, Ohio State faces no other ranked team while each of the other three teams in first place face at least two ranked teams. Maryland faces both Indiana and Michigan.

When Ohio State was blown out on the road at Michigan on New Year’s Eve, or when the Buckeyes lost point guard Madison Greene for the season before the year began, it seemed improbable that Ohio State would have a chance at the conference crown with less than two weeks until season’s end.

But the Buckeyes have won 10 of their last 11 games and have continued to look like one of the nation’s top offenses, led by Sheldon and Taylor Mikesell, the nation’s leader in 3-point shooting percentage.

“We’ve gotten a lot better, that’s for sure,” coach Kevin McGuff said. “You always preach it. It’s a lot easier said than done to be that team that continues to get better … but we’ve done it. I still think we have a ways to go and some things we can work on to be better before we get to March, but we have made significant progress.”

Illinois might be positioned in the basement of the Big Ten, but the Buckeyes had to find a way while the Illini denied Mikesell around the perimeter. She finished with 13 points and was just 1 for 3 from distance. That’s where the contributions from Harris played a large role.

Out of the first media timeout, Harris drained her second 3-pointer on an assist from Sheldon, then followed that up with a steal and a fastbreak layup as a part of an 11-0 run to take a 22-11 lead.

Illinois appeared to grab some momentum before the end of the quarter when Adalia McKenzie made a steal and a layup with five seconds to go to trim the deficit to nine, but Sheldon got the ball up the floor and found Harris at the right wing for a 3-pointer at the buzzer for a 27-15 lead.

If there was any more evidence needed that it was Harris’ night, she banked in a 3 from the left corner, then rattled home her fifth of the game moments later to take a 58-30 lead with 6:58 to go in the third quarter. The Buckeyes forced five turnovers during a 21-0 run to begin the second half.

Harris scored a career-high 15 points in January against Illinois. She hadn’t scored more than 10 points in a game since then, but scored 11 in the first quarter. She was 0 for 9 from 3-point range in her past three games entering Monday night.

Harris said she knew during warmups that it would be a good night.