Northwestern rallies, beats OSU

By Jim Massie

The Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS

Northwestern senior center Amy Jaeschke spent the first three years of her college basketball career watching Ohio State whiz by the Wildcats like a Ferrari passing a mountain bike on a curve.

So imagine for a moment how nice it felt on Sunday in Value City Arena for Jaeschke and her teammates to show their taillights to the sputtering, stalled Buckeyes for the second time this Big Ten season.

“This is my first win here,” a beaming Jaeschke said after Northwestern rallied to a 74-68 victory. “It’s really nice to see how far our program has come to be able knock off a team like Ohio State twice.”

The six-time defending conference champion Buckeyes (13-9, 4-6) actually seem easier and easier to reel in this season. Ohio State led 52-44 after an Ashley Adams basket with 13:05 to play. In a blistering 10:42 blur, the Wildcats (16-6, 5-6) were ahead 69-65 after a three-point play by Jaeschke.

“When we played them at home, we were down in the first half and we came back,” Jaeschke said of the 64-53 win. “We were reminded during a timeout that we can come back on this team that we’re good enough to do that.”

Jaeschke scored 12 consecutive points to key the pivotal run and 19 of her 29 over the final 11:41. The Buckeyes simply disappeared until it was too late to matter.

Ohio State center Jantel Lavender said the fear of playing of the Buckeyes is gone.

“We don’t have a mentality about defense,” she said. “I just think [other teams] think we don’t compete well or fight when we get down. Teams are just coming at us and we’re not really responding well.”

“We had an eight-point lead and they outscored us 19-2,” Ohio State coach Jim Foster said. “They imposed their will on us. We did not defend them. We let them do what they wanted to do and what they needed to do. We’re not a team that fights through adversity.

“If you look at all of these games, there will be a point where we just don’t get stops,” Foster said.

Adams led Ohio State with a career-high 18 points. Point guard Samantha Prahalis recorded a triple-double of 13 points, 10 assists and a career-high 10 rebounds. Lavender added 16 points and 10 rebounds.