Duke Blue Devils Shock Ohio State Buckeyes 75-63 in Second Round of NCAA Tournament

The Ohio State Buckeyes suffered from a big second half from the Duke Blue Devils.

The environment was electric, but the result was tough to swallow.

In front of a packed Value City Arena Sunday, the Ohio State Buckeyes (26-6, 16-2 Big Ten) fell to the Duke Blue Devils (22-11, 11-7 Atlantic Coast Conference) 75-63 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament behind a big second half from Duke junior guard Reigan Richardson. The loss officially ended Ohio State's national championship aspirations.

The Buckeyes got going right from the tip. Sophomore forward Cotie McMahon got an and-1 layup off a spin move within the first few seconds of the game to set up a great first quarter for Ohio State.

As Kevin McGuff’s squad has done so many times this season, they both used their press to their advantage and got out fast in transition. Ohio State forced five first-quarter turnovers and 10 out of 20 points just on layups — they held a 10-point lead after one.

The Blue Devils were able to slow the Buckeyes down a bit in the second, but Ohio State still cooked in the half-court offense. Buckeye guards got the ball to graduate forward Rebeka Mikulasikova at free throw line-extended and she found Taylor and graduate guard Jacy Sheldon on several occasions for the backdoor cuts for easy layups.

In addition, McMahon continued to dominate in the paint with her classic spin move, finishing through contact on several occasions.

Although Ohio State shot well as a team, they didn’t hit a 3-pointer until 14 seconds remaining in the game. In fact, Duke only hit its first 3 just under five minutes left in the half.

From then, Richardson hit the takeover button for Duke. Twice in late-shot clock situations, she hit two 3s in two minutes and continued to dominate from midrange as she had been doing. On the other end, however, McMahon was unstoppable to say the least — she finished the half with 14 points, almost entirely on bodying the opponent in the paint.

Richardson propelled a 9-0 run for the Devils to end the half, finishing with 12 herself through the first 20. Ohio State held a tight four-point lead at halftime.

Although it’s usually Ohio State that separates itself out of the locker room, it almost became Duke’s game to lose in the third quarter. As much as the Buckeyes tried to contain the Devils in transition and in the paint, Duke simply overpowered Ohio State, setting consistent back- and fade-screens to get easy buckets in the paint.

Even though McMahon continued to dominate in the paint, there was very little offense outside of her. Within a couple minutes of her going to the bench for the second time all game, Duke took their first lead of the game with just over a minute remaining in the third.

Richardson led the charge in the third yet again with six points, but what was more impressive was the Devils had six different players score in the quarter while the Buckeyes had just three. Duke led by one with 10 left to play.

The Buckeyes and Devils traded buckets to start the fourth. Every time Ohio State scored, the crowd was sent into a frenzy but when Duke put points on the board, the crowd would go almost silent.

As if things couldn’t get worse for the Buckeyes, Taylor fouled out with under seven minutes left, as the teams had several ties, going back and forth. This was likely not the way Taylor wanted her afternoon to end against her former team.

Senior guard Rikki Harris hit a free throw to give Ohio State their first lead of the quarter before Richardson came down and hit another 3 to give the Devils a two-point lead.

Adding salt to the wound, Mikulasikova also fouled out in the last five minutes to help the Devils dominate inside.

Richardson was almost like an NBA2K player late in the game, rarely missing from anywhere on the court. She hit consecutive buckets to stretch the Devils’ lead. The Devil guard finished by tying a career high with 28 points in response to McMahon’s 27.

The Buckeyes suffered just their second home loss of the year, a shocking upset to the Devils in what was likely the last game as a Buckeye for Sheldon, Taylor and Mikulasikova.