COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State women’s basketball team (13-7, 5-4 Big Ten) beat Iowa (12-8; 6-3 Big Ten), 93-82, Thursday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. The victory was the third consecutive win for the Buckeyes and the first time an Ohio State team had won at Iowa since a 56-47 victory Feb. 3, 1985. Ohio State relied on an 11-0 run to open the second half and hit 13-of-15 free throws in the final 20 minutes, including 6-of-6 in the last 1:31 of the game, to secure the conference win. Senior LaToya Turner (Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington) hit a layup with 2:34 left in the first half and became the 22nd member of the Ohio State 1,000-point club.
For the first time the season, six Ohio State players scored in double digits for head coach Jim Foster’s squad. Junior Caity Matter (Bluffton, Ohio/Bluffton) led the OSU scoring effort with 24 points, followed by Kim Wilburn (Southfield, Mich./Detroit Country Day), rookie Brandie Hoskins (Dayton, Ohio/Chaminade-Julienne), sophomore Michelle Mu±oz (Mason, Ohio/Mason), Turner and freshman Jessica Davenport (Columbus, Ohio/Columbus Independence) who scored 16, 15, 12, 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Iowa and Ohio State continued to trade buckets and the Hawkeyes were able to pull it to within three points (74-71) off a Kristi Faulkner trey with 6:02 remaining, but Mu±oz was the answer once again when she nailed a 3-pointer and gave her squad a six-point lead (77-71) at 5:49. Cavey hit another shot for Iowa, but Ohio State outscored the Hawkeyes 6-0 and quickly made it a 10-point game with 4:18 left. Wilburn, sophomore Candace Dark (Kingman, Ind./Fountain Central) and Mu±oz sank two free throws each the last minute-and-a-half to close the fourth-ever win for a Buckeye team at Iowa.
Ohio State plays No. 5/6 Purdue at 2 p.m. EST Sunday in West Lafayette, Ind. The game will be televised on ESPN2.