Maggie Lyon scored 24 points, Nia Coffey added 23 and Northwestern upset No. 5 Ohio State 86-82 on Thursday night.
Christen Inman added 17 points, and Freshman Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah had 14 points and 14 rebounds for Northwestern (13-4, 2-3 Big Ten). The Wildcats had lost two straight and four of six to fall out of the Top 25. They forced 16 turnovers and scored 23 points off the Buckeyes’ miscues in leading all the way.
Kelsey Mitchell led Ohio State (12-4, 4-1) with 28 points, and Ameryst Alston and Alexa Hart each had 12. The Buckeyes had won eight in a row.
Northwestern led 48-30 at the half, with Lyon hitting four of her five 3-point attempts. That helped negate Ohio State’s full-court press, and allowed the Wildcats to work the ball inside, where Coffey scored 17 first-half points.
Ohio State closed the gap to five points in the final quarter, with Mitchell scoring 12 points. Her three-point play cut it to 82-77 with 1:21 to play, but Northwestern hit four of six free throws in the final minute.
An earlier Buckeyes’ rally, punctuated by a 3-pointer by Alston, was answered by three straight baskets set up by Ohio State turnovers. Inman, Lyon and Kunaiyi-Akpanah scored in quick succession to make it 76-64 with 5:34 left.
Lyons hit a 3-pointer in the middle of a 15-2 run that pushed Northwestern’s lead to 42-20 with 3:39 left in the first half.
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