Sometimes a losing streak feels like it will never end. For No. 10 Ohio State women’s basketball, it lasted exactly two games after an 88-83 victory on Sunday over USC. The Trojans brought a unique roster of size and athleticism that was not always easy for Ohio State to handle, even though it ended up rolling through the side late in the game. That and the moment before the game that showed the bond of the 2025-26 edition of the Buckeyes.
Those items and more outline lessons learned from the victory over the JuJu Watkins-less Trojans.
Size disadvantage
Normally, a taller side gives Ohio State issues, like center Lauren Betts and the UCLA Bruins, or the duo of forward Hannah Stuelke and center Ava Heiden with the Iowa Hawkeyes. The USC Trojans brought size on Sunday, but nothing like the Hawkeyes and Bruins. No, it was the kind of combination of size, speed, and shooting that gives opponents fits.
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For Ohio State, there were definitely fits. None of the four starting guards for Ohio State stands taller than 5-foot-9, while the USC Trojans have guards Jazzy Davidson and Kennedy Smith. While both are listed at 6-foot-1, Davidson needs another round of measuring tape because the guard towered over the Buckeyes trying to defend her.
All throughout Davidson’s freshman season, teams have not had too much luck against the star. Davidson had a pretty standard stat line for her abilities with 32 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. After a season of making moves inside, Davidson had the best three-point shooting game of her young NCAA career with a season high of six made shots on nine attempts. With that size and shooting ability, even the best on-ball defenders like guards Ava Watson and Kennedy Cambridge did not have a chance once the Trojans got going.
Defensively, Smith matched up against point guard Jaloni Cambridge, and the six inches the USC sophomore had on Jaloni initially gave the Ohio State guard some problems. For the potential issues for the Buckeyes displayed by USC, Ohio State overcame them.
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“They’re a really difficult matchup for us because they’re so long everywhere,” head coach Kevin McGuff told reporters. “I thought we fought enough and we were able to use our kind of, our speed and quickness, and get some turnovers, get some steals, that we will convert on the other end.”
Ohio State allowed a great shooting day from Davidson, but the Buckeyes also forced nine turnovers from the freshman alone. In the fourth quarter, Davidson had four, including one with 34 seconds remaining, when Ohio State freshman guard Bryn Martin surprised the fellow freshman near the baseline when she turned around and saw the Buckeye there ready to take possession.
Now, the eventual performance of the Buckeyes does not mean that UCLA and Iowa are no longer problems, but the matchup against USC is a good setup for what Ohio State sees this week against the Michigan Wolverines on Wednesday and a trip to East Lansing to face Michigan State on Sunday.
All three are teams that do not have a traditional big working near the basket, but they bring pace in the paint and athleticism outside of it.
Defense to offense
Turning defense to offense is a popular adage for basketball coaches, and Ohio State is no different. The Buckeyes’ offensive strategy is not one that will hurt opponents game in and game out, but when the defense is clicking, it creates easy points on the fast break, frustration for opposing defenses, and then more mistakes for the other side on offense.
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The Buckeyes forced 25 turnovers, so mission accomplished for McGuff’s side. However, how those came about were not always in the full court press, which is the coach’s calling card. No, it was half-court defense that turned what looked like a third consecutive loss into a victory. Ohio State’s switch to man coverage turned the game around and forced bad decisions from the visitors.
“In general, the third quarter our defense wasn’t great, and they really made us pay,” McGuff said. “And so finally, in the fourth quarter, we played with a little more determination and grit on that end of the floor, and we got some stops and rebounds when we needed them.”
USC had its most turnovers when Ohio State was not in the press for extended periods of time. In the fourth quarter, when the game went to one-on-one assignments, the Trojans gave the ball away nine times, and the side missed six shots in a row while Ohio State went on an 18-1 run to put the game away.
“We just needed to slow down our defense for ourselves,” guard Ava Watson told reporters. “We knew that it was going to turn into a half-court game, so just help each other.”
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That help was clear. The Buckeyes held Davidson to only two shots during the run to keep her offensive impact out of the conversation. Eventually, the panic of the situation for USC led to clutch baskets from Davidson, who had 10 points in the last three minutes of the game, but the Buckeyes’ free throw shooting and a 13-point lead held off the Trojans.
It was a positive sign for the Buckeyes to win the game without steals, even though they had plenty of those, too. Kennedy Cambridge had four before she fouled out in the fourth quarter. The redshirt junior is now three away from tying the program record of 115 steals in a season that guard Yvette Angel set in the 84-85 season. Angel did that in 31 games. Cambridge has 28 this season and is set to break it on Wednesday, if the guard’s four steals per game average stays consistent.
“It’s nothing that she [Kennedy Cambridge] can’t do,” Jaloni Cambridge told reporters. “Whatever she sets her mind to, she’ll do it on and off the court. She’s crazy, so in a good way, but she’s crazy. She’s very determined. She gets what she wants, so she’s gonna get that no time.”
A special bond
It is easy to get lost in the numbers in the world of college basketball. The games do mean something, as do the results. Over the last generation of the game, capitalism got its hands on the sport, and after coaches began receiving millions of dollars, players got their rightful piece of the pie, and moving through the transfer portal went from the exception to the norm; a lot gets lost. Not only the academic part of the “student athlete” moniker, but the real people behind the game. Looking at athletes as people and not a piece of a gambler’s parlay.
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With all that said, basketball-wise, senior guard T’Yana Todd has not had the same impact in her lone season with the Buckeyes as she did last season with the Boston College Eagles. Todd has nine starts in 28 games for Ohio State, and averaged 12.9 points per game after the Sunday victory for the Buckeyes. Compared to last season, when Todd led the entire ACC with 45.9% shooting from beyond the arc, and competitively, it has not gone the guard’s way.
On Sunday, the Buckeyes celebrated Todd and fellow guard Chance Gray for Senior Day, and during the pregame ceremony, the folks who planned to walk with Todd were unavailable. They showed up later in the gam,e but it set up a moment where Todd was going to be alone. At first, Kennedy Cambridge stepped up to walk with her, and then that changed. The entire team joined the senior for one of her final college basketball games.
11 basketball players stand at the center of a basketball court with a spotlight on them. Player holds a framed white jersey with scarlet trim that reads “Todd” and “4”
“It was bad all around for emotions,” Jaloni Cambridge said, as she laughed about the team crying when they joined Todd. “But just to let her know that we got her back, and even though she’s been here for a year, the bond that we have built with each other, it feels like I’ve known them for forever.”
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That bond showed in that public moment, a rare public moment when the facade of playing basketball and holding it all together went away. There were 11 people who formed a team in the summer come together to stand with a teammate. It was not about stats or game results, but about the group of friends built over the trials and tribulations of not only a basketball season, but of simply surviving as an athlete and human.
The rare sight of an entire team standing together for one player’s Senior Day moment showed that not only is Ohio State a strong team, but they are a group of friends.
“I’ll do anything for this team on and off the court. I love them to death. I’ll never forget this team,” Jaloni Cambridge said.
