OSU gives Foster his 650th win

The Ohio State women defeated Penn State, 89-53, for their 16th win.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Jim Foster was not planning on a big party to celebrate his 650th coaching win. Far from it.

“Coaches don’t win any games without good players. It’s a fact of life,” he said after No. 19 Ohio State’s 89-53 victory over Penn State Monday night. “Players win games for coaches — and I’ve had a lot of good ones.”

One of them is freshman Jantel Lavender, who had 22 points to lead the way for the Buckeyes. Marscilla Packer added 12 points and seven assists and Ashlee Trebilcock had 11 points for Ohio State (16-4, 7-2 Big Ten).

Foster ran his record to 650-261 (.714) in 30 seasons, making him the 13th coach to win that many games in Division I. He is 146-36 in six seasons at Ohio State after going 256-99 in 11 years at Vanderbilt and 248-126 in 13 seasons at Saint Joseph’s.

He said he didn’t remember most of his watershed wins, but would never forget getting his 100th with Saint Joseph’s.

“I can remember we had a sideline inbounds play, about three-quarters court, and we were playing Oklahoma,” he said. “I put five shooters on the floor and Oklahoma fouled a 5-foot-1 player that almost never got into the games. She missed her first free throw and then took two dribbles, looked over at me, and winked at me. Then she made the second shot. That’s something you don’t forget.”

The Buckeyes are just 16-30 overall and 10-17 in Big Ten games against Penn State, but have won the last eight meetings. The victory kept them in first place in the conference by a game.

“Coach has been talking about we’ve just finished the first half of the Big Ten season. It’s a long season,” Packer said. “We have to take care of our business. We’re trying to send a message to the rest of the league.”

Tyra Grant (Ursuline) had 16 points and Brianne O’Rourke 12 for the Nittany Lions (13-8, 4-5), who have lost four of five.

“They’re a very good team. They played well in all phases of the game tonight,” first-year Penn State coach Coquese Washington said to begin a terse, two-question postgame interview session. “Starting off the game, Marscilla Packer hit a couple of jumpers that loosened things up inside. And we didn’t have an answer to Jantel Lavender. She’s an outstanding player and she played like it tonight.”

Ahead 10-8 after the opening 41⁄2 minutes, the Buckeyes sprinted away with a quick 11-2 run and the lead never fell below nine points again.

Lavender started the spurt with a layup off an assist from Tamarah Riley before Packer hit a 3 from the right corner. After Rashida Mark scored for the Nittany Lions, Packer hit a pull-up 15-footer and another jumper from the left wing. She then assisted on a Lavender bucket that made it 21-10.

“I basically was going down and getting position deep,” Lavender said. “When a post player gets that deep, it’s hard for anybody to guard you. Everybody was looking for me and I was open.”

The Buckeyes led by as many as 36 points in the second half.

“Our defense was aggressive,” Foster said. “It hadn’t been aggressive the last two games.”