No. 18 Ohio State Beats Cleveland State 68-54

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- No. 18 Ohio State built a 30-point lead in the second half but finished with only a 68-54 win over Cleveland State on Monday night, and the Buckeyes were left in a foul mood.

"I was frustrated we lost our lead," said Ohio State center Jantel Lavender, who led the Buckeyes with 18 points and 11 rebounds. "Our team has to be more intense the whole time. That's more frustrating, seeing we didn't have enough fire to finish off the game. ... We've got to keep the fire and intensity from the beginning of the second half all through the second half. We can't have a response like that."

Ashlee Trebilcock and Brittany Johnson added a dozen points off the bench for Ohio State.

Kailey Klein had 22 of her 30 points in the second half for Cleveland State, who trailed 38-18 at halftime. The Vikings hit just 25 percent (7 of 28) in the first half and 31.7 percent (19 of 60) for the game.

"They played well," Cleveland State coach Kate Peterson Abiad said of the Buckeyes. "They shot the ball well. We weren't able to shoot the ball well enough to provide a lot of competition. We came out in the first half and could not attack. I thought in the second half we came out and attacked better."

Ohio State (8-2) held the Vikings (4-5) without a field goal for nearly 9 minutes to increase a seven-point lead to 44-18 before Stephaine Crosley hit a jumper with 17:11 left.

The Buckeyes' largest lead was 56-26 with 12 minutes left, but Cleveland State whittled it to 59-41 on field goal by Klein 5 minutes later. Ohio state got a 3 from Cherise Daniels and Trebilcock and Lavender followed with field goals to return the lead to 25 before the Vikings made a run in the final 5 minutes.

Ohio State hosts Delaware on Tuesday before opening Big Ten play Sunday at home against Michigan.

"I'm not happy with the team," said Ohio State coach Jim Foster. "I dont think we played with the passion and energy necessary to be competitive in a league like the Big Ten."

Foster said his extensive use of the bench did not pay off even though eight players scored and nine players contributed to the team's 22 assists.

"I'm probably going to have to stop playing as many people as I did," he said. "Weve got to have synchronization on offense. We took entirely too many jump shots as evidenced by six foul shots. One of our traits is aggressiveness taking the ball to the basket."

Both teams were coming off nine-day breaks. Ohio State defeated Nebraska on Dec. 6 while the Vikings lost to Kent State.

Ohio State scored the first seven points before Klein made a layup and the Vikings closed to 15-13 midway through the half on another Klein field goal. Lavender then went inside for two and Trebilcock hit one from beyond the arc to up the lead to seven.

Cleveland did not hit a basket the last 5½ minutes, and the Buckeyes went on a 14-1 run to close out the half.

The game marked the third home venue for Ohio State this season. The Buckeyes have played in their regular home, Value City Arena, and in St. John's Arena on campus.

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