Lavender Leads Buckeyes Past Illinois 70-53

INDIANAPOLIS -- Ohio State kept hearing the echoes of past tournament struggles.

There was the first-round loss to Marist in the NCAA tournament two years ago. There was the first-round loss to Florida State in last year's NCAA tourney. And, then, of course, there was that quarterfinal loss to Illinois in last year's Big Ten tournament.

On Friday night, the Buckeyes silenced everyone with a dominating performance.

Two-time Big Ten player of the year Jantel Lavender had 22 points and 11 rebounds, and Brittany Johnson finished with 16 points, leading the 12th-ranked Buckeyes to a 70-53 victory in the quarterfinal rematch with Illinois.

"I'm sure in the back of their minds, they were like 'We're not going to let what happened last year happen this year,' " Illinois coach Jolette Law said. "They came out focused."

Did they ever.

Now the Buckeyes (25-5) must do it all over again in Saturday's semifinals against Iowa, a 79-64 winner over Minnesota. The Hawkeyes won the first meeting this season 85-75 on Feb. 12 in Iowa City.

But if Ohio State wanted to send a message with its first tourney win, it was this: The Big Ten's best regular-season team is also going to prove it is the Big Ten's best postseason team.

"We've been focusing on being a 40-minute team instead of being a 20-minute team," Lavender said after her 21st double-double this season. "I think that today, we really showed that, and we came out for two hard halves."

Lavender led the charge with her 61st consecutive game of double-figure scoring while moving within 20 points of breaking Katie Smith's school record for points by a sophomore.

Plus, she had help.

Star Allen finished with 10 points and nine rebounds, and the league's freshman of the year, Samantha Prahalis, had six points and nine assists despite missing the final nine minutes of the first half because of foul trouble.

The Buckeyes were almost as good defensively. Illinois shot just 30.8 percent from the field in the first half and 33.3 percent for the game.

Just what the way coach Jim Foster drew it up.

"What gave me a comfortable feeling was how hard we were playing on defense," he said. "We were just really digging and getting effort. The shots they did make, they had to work really hard to get."

Jenna Smith led the Illini (10-21) with 23 points and eight rebounds, Lydia McCully had 14 points and Lacey Simpson 12. Only one other Illinois player, Macie Blinn, scored all night. Blinn finished with four.

It was telling of how lopsided the game really was.

The Buckeyes hit their first 10 shots, going more than 7 minutes without a miss while building a 22-7 lead. Then the Buckeyes went on a 12-2 run late in the half to extend the lead to 40-14.

By halftime, the Buckeyes were holding a 41-19 lead and still shooting 66.7 percent. They were on pace to break their own single-game tournament record for field-goal percentage (60.8 in 2007) and nearly on pace to break Iowa's record of 37 field goals in a tourney game.

"Any time you go on a run with the amount of shots we made in a row, and the percentage we were shooting, sometimes that makes you very nervous because you know it's going to change," Foster said.

Not this night.

After Illinois closed to 43-27 early in the second half, the Buckeyes answered with a 14-2 run to rebuild a 57-29 lead. Game over.

Ohio State wound up 31-of-54 from the field, 57.4 percent - matching the sixth-best mark in tourney history - and temporarily ended any discussion of another postseason flop.

"We knew we had lost to them last year and it was our chance to get some revenge against them," Lavender said. "I think we came out extremely focused and ready to play."