Michael Felish’s take on the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Women’s Basketball tournament from Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Ohio State 57, Michigan 48 —
It was expected to be a close and exciting matchup between the Michigan Wolverines and the three-time defending Big Ten Tournament champion Ohio State Buckeyes. Michigan returned to action after a dominant 68-53 win over Illinois in the first round of the tournament, led by their senior guard, Courtney Boylan, who finished the game with 17 points. Boylan was not able to follow up her performance in the Wolverines quarterfinal game against the Buckeyes as she failed to score in the first half; she finished the game with 10 points and 5 assists.
On the other side of the court, Ohio State’s guard, Samantha Prahalis maintained her undefeated streak in Big Ten Tournament play. After being named the Big Ten Player of the Year and being selected unanimously to the first-team All-Big Ten, Prahalis added on to her early Easter basket of awards by becoming the all-time assist leader in the Big Ten.
Coming out of the break, the scoring sheet looked practically identical as Ohio State held onto a slim three-point lead. The Wolverines came out lifeless after intermission as they found themselves on the wrong end of a 15-0 run at the start of the second half. The Big Ten’s leading scorer during the regular season, Tayler Hill, scored 16 of her 19 points after the break as her play helped lift the Buckeyes past Michigan on their way to a 57-48 win over the Wolverines.
With the loss, the Wolverines have to put their dancing shoes on hold as they will wait and see if their play during the season has earned them an NCAA tournament bid.
Nebraska 80, Iowa 68 —
Nebraska rolled out the red carpet in their first ever game in the Big Ten Tournament as the conference’s newest team, coming over from the Big 12 (quite ironic since the Big Ten now has 12 teams and the Big 12 has 10).
The Cornhuskers wasted no time making a mark in their new conference tournament’s record books as the team scored a record 54 points in the first half against the Northwestern Wildcats. In their quarterfinal matchup against third-seeded Iowa, Nebraska continued to light up the scoreboard early in the starting half, finding themselves up by nine after seven minutes of play, but their newest neighbor/ rival strung together a couple nice runs of their own as the rookie-veteran combination of freshman guard, Samantha Logic, and senior guard, Kamille Wahlin, scored 25 of the team’s 36 first half points; the two had a quiet second half finishing the game with a combined 33 points.
Nebraska would go into the break only trailing three following a last-second heave three-point shot from Lindsey Moore. Iowa was the first to score coming out of the break as Iowa guard Melissa Dixon hit her second three-point field goal of the game.It would have been fitting for Bankers Life Fieldhouse to play ‘Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)’ over the loudspeaker as the second half rolled around.
Both teams found themselves in a shoot-out, particularly from behind the arc as both Iowa and Nebraska heavily relied on three-pointers. Both the Hawkeyes and the Cornhuskers finished with seven three-point field goals made in the game. Lindsey Moore helped break open the lead for the Cornhuskers in the second half, where she scored 19 of her 26 points, while connecting on four out of her five three-point shots. Moore was one of four Nebraska players to finish with double digits as their balanced scoring attack left Iowa answerless.
Nebraska went on to defeat the Hawkeyes 80-68 in a game that most certainly could be the start of a new, interesting rivalry in Big Ten women’s basketball for years to come.
Penn State 78, Minnesota 74 —
After a solid 81-49 win over the Wisconsin Badgers in the first round of the tournament, the Minnesota Golden Gophers came into Bankers Life Fieldhouse upset-minded; they were moments away from throwing off the top-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions. Minnesota opened the quarterfinals matchup efficiently scoring easily off of transitions.
The Golden Gophers found themselves on a 9-0 run early in the first half, controlling the Big Ten’s most elite team coming into the tournament. It took back-to-back three-pointers from Zhaque Gray to kill the run and the momentum Minnesota carried. The Gophers found their groove again halfway through the first half in command of a 14-3 run, led by Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Rachel Banham, who was four rebounds shy of a double-double in the first half alone.
On the opposite end of the floor, last year’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Maggie Lucas, along with Gray, accounted for well-over half of the Lady Lion’s 29 points going into the break. The current FOY finished with a game-high 25 points while the former award recipient finished with 24 points in the matchup for the Gophers. Penn State did not lose a game since January and had no intentions of doing so following intermission.
Head coach Coquese Washington, this season’s Big Ten Coach of the Year, made some noticeable changes to her squad as they started things off just right opening the second half with a 16-2 run. The Lady Lions finished the game with five players finishing in double-figures including junior center, Nikki Greene, who finished with 11 points and 6 offensive rebounds. Greene’s play was the difference for Penn State as she scored all of her baskets in the second half during PSU’s offensive runs that gave them the lead in the game.
That along with 16 second half made free throws compared to Minnesota’s seven helped Penn State survive in their first game of the tournament as they won in an unexpected close battle against the Golden Golphers.
Purdue 73, Michigan State 64 —
Michigan State came into their matchup against Purdue fresh off a dominant win over the Indiana Hoosiers in their first-round game where the Spartans tied the second-highest point total in Big Ten Tournament history with 97. Their hopes of scoring that amount in the second half were highly unlikely as the Boilermakers came into play leading the Big Ten in scoring defense, allowing just 57.7 points per game.
Purdue seemed to have no trouble at first, opening the game on a 7-0 run. It would take Lykendra Johnson 3:05 to kill the run with a jumper to put up the Spartans first points of the night. Johnson, who was named All-Big Ten, went on to post an 8-0 run, hitting four consecutive shots. Her teammate, Porsche Poole, also honored with All-Big Ten honors, contributed to the Spartan scoring attack. The two would finish for a combined 33 points.
It took Michigan State until the 14:04 mark in the first half for someone not named Lykendra Johnson to score as Taylor Alton connected from beyond the arc. Johnson’s scoring performance was outshined by Purdue’s captain, Brittany Rayburn, who scored a game-high 29 points while lighting it up from downtown, finishing 7-10 from behind the three-point line. Every time the Spartans looked to be putting together a run, trying to cut the lead the Boilermakers held the entire second half, Chantel Poston always seemed to be there to kill Michigan State’s momentum as she silenced the MSU fans in attendance with two three-point plays, both ending Spartan runs.
Poston finished the game with 10 points that were crucial down the stretch as Purdue went on to win 73-64, giving the Boilermakers a perfect 3-0 record against Michigan State in tournament play.