Buckeyes win rout over MSU

COLUMBUS, Ohio - After Ohio State won a fourth straight Big Ten title last season, coach Jim Foster took an extraordinary step.

He started over.

Faster, more aggressive and more athletic, the 17th-ranked Buckeyes are making Foster's makeover look like a stroke of genius.

Jantel Lavender scored 20 points to hit double figures for the 45th game in a row and the Buckeyes took command early Sunday to beat Michigan State, 67-49.

With Shavelle Little, the Big Ten's defensive player of the year, triggering a cloying, pressure-oriented defense, and freshman point guard Samantha Prahalis at the controls of a fastbreaking offense, the Buckeyes (12-2, 3-0 Big Ten) are more intimidating than ever.

"They play faster for sure," said Michigan State coach Suzy Merchant. "They play faster defensively and offensively. Their transition game with Prahalis changes so much. She really adds a lot to that team in terms of what she can do to push tempo."

The Buckeyes went on a 16-0 run near the outset and were never threatened while winning their sixth in a row.

"You reach a certain point of the season where you're starting to establish an identity," Foster said. "I would like to think that we're becoming a pretty intense, aggressive defensive basketball team."

Part of the reason he made the switch to an attacking style was because his lineup is stocked with players - led by the mobile, 6-foot-4 Lavender - who like to get up and down the floor. Another reason was quick knockouts in the NCAA tournament each of the last three seasons, when the Buckeyes looked anything but athletic compared to their opponents.

"Yeah, we're dramatically different," Foster said. "We play with passion. We just play harder. The ball moves better. We don't have ball-stoppers, we have ball-movers."

Lavender, leading the Big Ten in scoring and rebounding, chose to shoot from the outside rather than mix it up inside with the Spartans' 6-foot-9 Allyssa DeHaan.

When Lavender wasn't moving to open spots for shots, power forward Star Allen was chipping in with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

"We controlled the tempo of the game," Lavender said. "We were working on pulling me out more, keeping her (DeHaan) away from the basket, and looking for Star more. Star can post up the other post player. Getting Allyssa away from the basket was our goal."

Lavender, whose scoring streak includes every college game she has played, also had eight rebounds, two assists, two steals and three blocked shots.

"Jantel Lavender is running the floor better than she's ever run (it)," Merchant said.

Lauren Aitch had 14 points for the Spartans (9-6, 2-2), who never got closer than 14 points over the last 29 minutes.

Michigan State had won the last two meetings, but this one - matching the Big Ten's top two scoring teams - was in Ohio State's win column early.

After Brittney Thomas took an assist from Kalisha Keane to tie the game at 2-2 at the 18:46 mark, the Spartans went without a point for the next 6:57. Over that span, they missed all four shots from the field, didn't go to the free-throw line and had seven turnovers. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes were running off 16 points while hitting 6 of 13 from the field including two 3-pointers and both foul shots and committing just two turnovers.

Ashlee Trebilcock made two 3-pointers and Lavender also had six points in the spurt.

Ohio State didn't take its foot off the gas, either, building the lead to 35-10 before the Spartans ran off seven points in the last minute of the half to go into the locker room down 37-17.

The Spartans had more turnovers than points through the first 19 minutes.

Ohio State led by as many as 27 points before the Michigan State whittled it down to 16 points in the final minutes.

Little created havoc defensively with four steals while adding six points and two assists.

"She's a one-man press," Merchant said.

Prahalis hit just 2 of 14 shots from the field but had seven assists and four steals. She and Lavender seem to feed off each other, with most of Prahalis' assists going to last year's Big Ten player of the year.

"Fans have said we're like Shaq and Kobe," Lavender said. "We have such a good chemistry on the floor."

Ohio State 67, Michigan State 49

MICHIGAN STATE (49)

Player M FG FT R A F Pt

Jefferson 31 2-9 1-3 9 3 4 6

Keane 16 0-2 0-0 3 1 1 0

DeHaan 25 3-6 0-0 7 0 3 6

Thomas 30 2-6 0-2 3 3 3 4

M. Johnson 14 0-5 0-0 1 0 0 0

Piechowski 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Poole 15 2-4 0-0 0 2 2 5

Washington 6 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 2

Schiffauer 20 3-9 0-0 3 2 2 7

L. Johnson 23 1-3 3-4 9 2 2 5

Aitch 18 7-11 0-0 2 0 0 14

TEAM 3

Totals 200 21-56 4-9 40 13 19 49

Ohio State (67)

Player M FG FT R A F Pt

Allen 27 5-7 4-4 10 2 1 14

Lavender 32 8-14 4-5 8 2 0 20

Trebilcock 20 2-8 0-0 4 1 4 6 Little 25 2-4 2-2 3 2 2 6

Prahalis 34 2-14 1-3 3 7 2 5

Jackson 4 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0

Moeller 15 0-1 0-0 0 2 1 0

Daniel 7 0-2 0-0 0 1 0 0

Johnson 11 1-2 2-2 2 1 1 5

Schulze 12 1-3 0-0 1 0 0 3

Walker 13 3-3 2-3 4 0 1 8

TEAM 1

Totals 200 24-58 15-19 36 18 13 67

3-point goals--MSU 3-9 (Jefferson 1-1, Keane 0-1, Johnson 0-3, Poole 1-1, Washington 1-3). Ohio State 4-15 (Trebilcock 2-4, Prahlis 0-6, Daniel 0-1, Johnson 1-1, Schulze 1-3). Turnovers--MSU 24, Ohio State 15. Halftime--Ohio State 37, MSU 17. A--5,210