Ohio State women maul Illinois

Jantel Lavender had 30 points and 12 rebounds.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Big Ten scoring and rebounding leader Jantel Lavender had 30 points and 12 rebounds Thursday to lead No. 19 Ohio State past Illinois, 68-51.

Star Allen added 13 points and 10 rebounds for Ohio State (15-3, 6-1), which had rolled over the Illini 67-35 on the road 11 days ago.

Jenna Smith had 19 points and Lydia McCully 11 for Illinois (4-16, 0-9), which lost its 10th straight.

The Buckeyes bounced back from a rare home loss, 59-56 to Minnesota a week ago.

That ended an eight-game winning streak and a string of 86 consecutive home victories over unranked opponents.

Illinois cut what had been a 16-point lead to 55-47 on a three-point play by Smith with 5:19 left.

But the Buckeyes countered with two free throws by Allen, a perimeter jumper by Sarah Schulze and Maria Moeller’s three-point play to push the lead back to 62-47 with 3:53 left.

Lavender finished 15 of 24 from the field. The rest of the Buckeyes were just 14 of 36.

Lavender had 18 points at the half as the Buckeyes grabbed a 36-27 lead. Aggressively looking for shots and grabbing almost every available rebound, she made 9-of-15 shots and also had eight rebounds.

She had one more field goal than the rest of her team, which was a combined 8 of 21.

Still, the Illini were in the game. In the loss at home to Ohio State, they had trailed just 27-20 at the half but were outscored 40-15 in the second half.

Down 8-6 early, the Buckeyes took the lead for good with a 7-0 run. Prahalis had a three-point play, Ashlee Trebilcock hit a 12-foot baseline jumper and Lavender scored inside.

The Buckeyes play six of their next nine on the road.

Shavelle Little, last year’s Big Ten defensive player of the year, missed the loss to the Golden Gophers after injuring a knee. She returned to play 13 minutes.