Ohio State women’s 95-47 Western Michigan victory was a personnel preview of Big Ten play

Monday night, No. 19 Ohio State women’s basketball played its fourth game in a row against a midmajor opponent. It ended at least the 2025 schedule of nonconference games, with one remaining against No. 8 TCU still to come in January, in Newark, New Jersey.

A month can feel like a lifetime in a basketball season, and over the last month it felt more like the movie Groundhog’s Day. Each game against unranked sides outside of the power conferences, all with losing records, came to the Schottenstein Center and they all ended with rested Ohio State starters on the bench with an average winning margin of 34.8 points.

However, Monday night was different. The 95-47 Buckeye victory over the Western Michigan Broncos was something of a dress rehearsal for Big Ten play.

“We wanted to get a little closer to what it’ll probably look like,” head coach Kevin McGuff told reporters. “Moving forward, and at least for the time being, that’s probably what the rotation is going to be.”

McGuff only used eight of his 11 players in the first half against the MAC program. Compare that to the previous three games, especially inside the paint. After Ohio State started the season with forward Kylee Kitts and center Elsa Lemmilä in the starting lineup, injury and timid play sidelined Lemmilä after the 6’6” center missed the fourth game of the season, against the Kent State Golden Flashes.

It was only one absence, but McGuff relegated the big to the bench for the next seven games, and Monday was no different. What was different was the dress rehearsal between Lemmilä and redshirt freshman forward Ella Hobbs ended. Lemmilä came off the bench as the sixth player for the Buckeyes and replaced Kitts.

Then, after a couple-minute break, Kitts returned but not to replace Lemmilä. Instead, the duo returned to the court for the final 3:12 of the opening quarter. For the first time this season, the pair was a force. The two bigs combined for 29 points, with Lemmilä leading all scorers with 15 points on perfect 6-of-6 shooting.

“I got really good passes from really good guards,” Lemmilä told reporters. “I mean, they passed me when I was open and I scored.”

The humble Finnish center downplayed a performance that featured increased interior intensity. In the one season of Lemmilä’s college career before the 2025-26 season, it sometimes looked like Lemmilä was not aware of her size advantage. Over the last three games, that’s changed and Lemmilä pushed her way into the paint, took contact and still finished baskets with three-point opportunities. Lemmilä took six of Ohio State’s 11 free throws in the game.

Lemmilä attributed the increased aggression in the paint to a third consecutive season for her returning from injury and missing out on a full preseason. In Lemmilä’s first year, the big recovered from ACL surgery a year prior. This season it was knee and ankle surgeries. A by-product of being a 6’6” teenager. Lemmilä‘s improved health arrived just in time for Big Ten play.

For Kitts, when she was on the floor with Lemmilä especially, the forward had free rein of the court. Kitts stretched the entire 94 feet of the court and even jumped into the press in the backcourt. Ohio State guards found both Kitts and Lemmilä all night and the Buckeyes outscored Western Michigan 56-18 and nine of Ohio State’s 18 assists that happened before starters went to the bench in the third quarter went to one of the two bigs.

“I thought they [Kitts and Lemmilä] both play well, and especially Elsa, each week seems to be getting a little better, a little more comfortable,” McGuff told reporters. “I think that line up with both of them on the court is going to be a lineup that we’re going to need to be effective with heading into Big Ten play.”

Now, there is the 6’7” grain of salt. Western Michigan is not the No. 4 UCLA Bruins or the other five ranked Big Ten teams not named Ohio State. The Broncos do not have center Lauren Betts like UCLA. Either way, the win over the Broncos at least showed fans what a roadmap looks like for the 11-player Buckeye roster.

Ohio State established the guard rotation earlier than inside the paint. McGuff’s preferred pairing off the bench is sophomore guard Ava Watson and freshman Bryn Martin. Since the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Championship on the week of Thanksgiving, Watson showed that she is not only a capable point guard but is less of a drop in skill and talent from starter Jaloni Cambridge than anticipated.

Watson sat in the corner last season as the backup shooting guard, waiting for Cambridge or then forward Cotie McMahon to drive to the basket and find her alone to attempt a three-point shot. The guard from Buford, Georgia has 3.3 assists and 3.6 steals per game since Nov. 26 against the West Virginia Mountaineers. Against the Broncos, Watson had six assists and three of them came in the first quarter, before the game was completely out of Western Michigan’s hands.

For Martin, the freshman beat fellow freshman Dasha Biriuk because of her play on both sides of the ball. Martin was quiet offensively against the Broncos but had two blocks and this season is fourth on the team with 1.3 steals per game.

UCLA is more challenge than test for Ohio State, but at least the key players are who will face it.