BATON ROUGE, La. — Jacy Sheldon had 23 points, eight assists and three steals, as sixth seed Ohio State beat No. 3 seed LSU 79-64 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday night.
Taylor Mikesell scored 18 and Rebeka Mikulasikova had 12 points for the Buckeyes (25-6), who responded to a large, loud and hostile crowd in the Tigers' home arena by seizing momentum in the opening quarter and putting LSU in the deepest deficit it had face all season at 24 points late in the third quarter.
LSU (26-6), which overcame a 10-point deficit inside the final five minutes of their first round game against Jackson State two days earlier, lacked the firepower to climb out of a bigger hole against Sheldon and Co.
Khayla Pointer, the Tigers' second-team All-America guard, scored 32 points, but also missed 18 of her 30 shots, her dry spells coming as the Buckeyes pulled away. Jailin Cherry scored 12 points for LSU, which hit just twice from 3-point range on eight attempts.
Autumn Newby grabbed 10 rebounds for the Tigers.
Ohio State led by eight at halftime and put LSU in a deep hole by opening the third quarter with a 13-2 run that Mikesell capped with a deep 3 to give the Buckeyes a 47-28 lead.
Later in the third, Sheldon hit consecutive 3s from each side of the court to make it 57-33.
After Pointer hit a 3 on LSU's first shot of the game, the Tigers missed 15 of their next 17 shots. That's when Sheldon began to exert her full-court influence on the game, converting three steals into fast-break layups in a span of little more than two minutes.
The third of those baskets gave Ohio State a 12-8 lead, and then Mikesell hit her first 3 of the game to put the Buckeye up 15-8 after one period.
Rebeka Mikulasikova and Mikesell each hit two 3s as Ohio State widened its lead to as much as nine in the second quarter.
Pointer, who had 11 first-half points, helped stem the tide with a jumper and a driving, double-pump scoop off the glass.
But Rikki Harris' offensive rebound of a missed jumper and kick out to the top of the key set up Braxtin Miller's 3 to give Ohio State a 34-26 lead at halftime.
BIG PICTURE
Ohio State: The Buckeyes overcame the Tigers' front-court size advantage by shooting well from outside and effectively defending the paint when Pointer tried to drive. Ohio State's 10 3s on 22 attempts were more than their average per game coming in and they shot 48.3% overall (28 of 58).
Meanwhile, Harris, a starting guard, was helped back to the Ohio State locker room with about three minutes left after falling hard along the sideline and crashing into the scorers' table.
LSU: The Tigers eight points in the opening quarter tied for their lowest-scoring quarter of the season. It was a bad omen as they struggled with their shooting all night. The Tigers finished 25 of 68 shooting (37%), committed 11 turnovers that led to 16 Ohio State points and missed 10 of 22 free throws.
Still, coach Kim Mulkey's first season at LSU was an enormous success
UP NEXT:
Ohio State advances to the Spokane Region semifinals against second seed Texas on Friday.
