By Carrie Philips

Well it was an exciting weekend for the B10 in Women’s bball.  Heading into the round of 16 there were three schools remaining repping the Big Ten conference… all three underdogs in their individual match-ups.  The least likely to come out of the Sweet 16 alive, Purdue, ended up being the only one to do just that, though they were the only of the three playing a lower seed.  Here’s the skinny: 

3 Ohio State defeated by 2 Stanford 66-84:  Jantel Lavender and the Big Ten’s top team, the Buckeyes, kept it close with Stanford throughout the first half but couldn’t hold off a late run by the Cardinal that ended up costing them the game.  Lavender, the B10 POY, faced foul trouble, a situation she rarely found herself in throughout the season.  She was still able to contribute 15 points and seven boards in the effort, but it wasn’t nearly enough, as Stanford brought their own post presence in Jayne Appel.  Appel, the Pac-10 POY, had 25 and 11 and seemed to win the majority of the battles under the basket.  Other than frosh Samantha Prahalis (who went for 19 points and six assists), Lavender didn’t get much help from the rest of the Buckeye squad, and with Lavender in foul trouble, someone needed to step up to keep the Bucks in it… instead it is the end of the road for OSU. 

9 Michigan State defeated by 4 Iowa State 68-69:  The Spartans had a seven point lead with a minute and a half remaining in the contest, but Iowa State managed to score eight unanswered points to take the lead, and the game.  The story for the Cyclones seems to be in their 3-point shooting. (Stanford may want to take note here) They’ve made ten or more treys in all three of their tourney games so far, including the 10-25 they shot against MSU.  Two of those three came in that last 1:30.  There is some speculation as to whether a foul should have been called against the Cyclones in the waning seconds, putting the Spartans at the line to tie or win it, but none was called.  Spartan junior Allyssa DeHaan continues to impress from the post – she finished the game with 24 points, eight boards, and five blocks. 

6 Purdue with the lone B10 victory over 7 Rutgers 67-61:  While it might be a new trend, the Boilermakers have been showing us a high-powered offense of late, and we like it.  That offensive aggression put Purdue up 16 in the first half, and kept the Scarlet Knights from taking a lead the rest of the game.  The Knights were able to mount a few runs to bring them within two at times, but the Purdue players made the big shots in the big moments to hold on.  As a team, the Boilers shot 53% - though only 47% from the charity stripe, a number they’ll need to improve on if they want to get past top-seeded Oklahoma on Tuesday (at 9PM Eastern on ESPN).  There were plenty of top performers from Sunday’s Sweet 16 win – a team victory, indeed - Lakisha Freeman had 18 points, six boards and five assists, FahKara Malone with four steals and a well timed bucket (eight pts total for her), Jodi Howell chipped in 15 points, Danielle Campbell with six points and 12 boards, and, of course, Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton with 13 points, eight boards and four dishes.