Ohio State-Michigan women’s basketball games are nothing if not consistently close.
The eighth-ranked Buckeyes and No. 19 Wolverines entered Value City Arena having played each other to five straight games with a margin of nine points or fewer.
Tuesday made six, but the Wolverines took advantage of a cold Ohio State offense to send the Buckeyes to an 84-75 loss, snapping a nine-game win streak.
An Alexa Hart transition layup cut it to 75-70 with 3:43 to play, but a Hallie Thome three-point play on the other end made Michigan’s advantage eight.
She made two more free throws with 1:52 remaining and a layup with 1:08 to go to give Michigan an 82-72 lead, its largest of the game.
Stephanie Mavunga led the Buckeyes in scoring for a second straight game, finishing with 21. Kelsey Mitchell had 20 and Linnae Harper 15. Thome, Nicole Munger and Katelynn Flaherty had 27, 20, and 21 for Michigan (16-4, 5-2 Big Ten), respectively.
The Buckeyes (16-3, 5-1) shot 36 percent.
A Thome layup placed Michigan ahead 43-41 with 7:13 left in the third quarter. It marked the first time this season the Buckeyes trailed in the second half of a game at Value City Arena and their first time trailing in the City of Columbus since a Nov. 12 overtime loss to Louisville.
Michigan briefly returned Ohio State the lead but didn’t let up. A Flaherty three reclaimed Michigan’s lead 56-54 and a pair of Nicole Munger free throws made it 62-56 with six seconds left in the third quarter before Mitchell made two on the other end to cut the deficit to four.
The Buckeyes found trouble in two forms in the first half: Mitchell picked up her second foul not long after the midpoint of the first quarter, and Ohio State struggled with its transition defense, giving Michigan several open layups.
Michigan made 63.6 percent of its first-quarter shots and 66.7 percent of its two-point attempts and still an efficient 11 points from Mavunga carried the Buckeyes to a 25-21 advantage after the first quarter.
A sigh of relief in the form of Mitchell returning to the floor was quickly snatched away by Michigan sophomore guard Kayla Robbins, who drew a third Mitchell foul with 5:49 left in the second quarter to again send the three-time All-America guard to the bench.
Mitchell scored eight first-half points, including a second-quarter three that allowed her to pass former Southern California star Cheryl Miller for sole possession of 11th on the Division I scoring list. She later passed Chamique Holdsclaw of Tennessee to rise to No. 10.
Mitchell played just 11 minutes but the Buckeyes led 41-36 at the half.