WOMENS-BASKETBALL

Women’s basketball | Rutgers 59, Ohio State 57: Late basket snaps Buckeyes’ winning streak

From staff reports
Ohio State’s Dorka Juhasz notched her sixth double-double of the season with a team-high 17 points and 10 rebounds in Saturday’s loss to Rutgers. [Fred Squillante file photo]

Arella Guirantes’ jumper with four seconds left lifted Rutgers past visiting Ohio State 59-57 Saturday afternoon in a women’s basketball game in Piscataway, New Jersey.

The loss ended the Buckeyes’ six-game winning streak.

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Guirantes drove left just inside of 10 seconds, froze her defender, Janai Crooms, with a pump fake, and drilled the winning basket from 8 feet away. The go-ahead bucket capped Guirantes’ career-high 36-point outing and closed out a fourth quarter in which she scored 13 of the Scarlet Knights’ 15 points. Guirantes shot 15 of 21 from the field overall, including 3 of 3 on three-pointers.

Ohio State (17-10, 10-6) held a 51-44 lead early in the fourth quarter but missed all 12 of its field-goal attempts in the final 10 minutes. The Buckeyes scored just seven points in the quarter.

“(It was) disappointing because we had a chance,” Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said. “We just didn’t finish the game.”

Rutgers (19-8, 9-7) began the final quarter on an 8-0 run and took a 52-51 lead with just under four minutes left. With 29 seconds remaining and Ohio State down four, OSU’s Braxtin Miller sank two free throws before stealing Rutgers’ ensuing inbounds pass, pushing the ball to the other end and getting fouled. She made two more free throws with 24 seconds left to tie the score, setting up Guirantes’ end-of-game heroics.

Ohio State’s Dorka Juhasz notched her sixth double-double of the season with a team-high 17 points and 10 rebounds. Miller finished with 16 points and six rebounds. Rebeka Mikulasikova had 11 points and four rebounds off the bench.