The three key Buckeyes in women’s comeback win over No. 21 West Virginia

With 4:34 remaining in Wednesday’s matchup between Ohio State women’s basketball and the West Virginia Mountaineers, the Buckeyes odds of winning took a dive.

Point guard Jaloni Cambridge fouled out and went to the bench. West Virginia held an eight-point lead and the top scorer this season for the Buckeyes, the team’s vocal on and off the court leader, would not be part of the comeback attempt.

Jaloni Cambridge went to the bench, sat down, and put her head in her hands. The sophomore was not alone for long and guard Kennedy Cambridge joined her sister less than a minute later for the same reason.

Without the Cambridge sisters, Ohio State missed their leading players on offense and defense. So far this season, Buckeye games went whichever way the Cambridge sisters led it. The West Virginia Mountaineers on the other hand, played their strategy to a T — get to the paint and the free throw line.

Hope looked lost for the remaining eight eligible Ohio State athletes.

Then something weird happened. At least it was out of place for this edition of the Buckeyes, so far in the early weeks of the 2025-26 season. Three players for Ohio State created moments that led to a surprise 83-81 Buckeye victory.

Here are those players and their moments.

Bryn Martin

The Baha Mar Pink Flamingo four-game “tournament” handed out awards following the Buckeyes victory. Jaloni Cambridge and Chance Gray each earned justified accolades for their impact. Gray was vital in the comeback win over Belmont and Cambridge averaged 24 points over the two games.

There wasn’t a formal award for the surprise player of the tournament, but if there was Martin would win unanimously.

Martin entered the week with 18 points in four appearances. In two games at Baha Mar, Martin scored 21. Against West Virginia, Martin had 16 points, the second most on the team, and in consecutive possessions turned a seven-point Buckeye deficit into a single-possession game.

Down seven points, Martin hit her fourth three-point shot of the game, which matched the Mountaineers’ total in the defeat. Martin followed it up with a layup on the fastbreak.

“She [Martin] made some huge shots today,” head coach Kevin McGuff told Land-Grant Holy Land. “For two games in a row, she was in the right spot at the right time. She did a great job communicating out there. One of a kind of glue people that helps everybody stay organized, and then when we’re organized, we can execute.”

What was going through the freshman’s head when two starting guards went to the bench and the Buckeyes needed a swift change in fortune to pick up their first ranked win of the season?

“Nothing,” Martin told Land-Grant Holy Land. ”I just try to play. Feel like when I think I overthink, and then I don’t shoot the shot, my shot, and things like that. So I just play the game as if it was 0-0.“

Elsa Lemmilä

Overall, four players fouled out for the Buckeyes on Wednesday. After Martin’s five points in two possessions, she joined the Cambridge sisters on the bench. Sophomore center Elsa Lemmilä seemed like the best candidate for the next player to foul out.

Lemmilä started the fourth quarter with four fouls, which limited her time on the court over the first three quarters. In addition, the center is still recovering from two offseason surgeries and has not always looked like the same big who gave Ohio State strong minutes off the bench last season.

In the final three minutes of Wednesday’s Buckeye victory, Lemmilä produced on both sides of the court.

With less than 40 seconds remaining, the game was tied at 79 points apiece. For the previous nearly 40 minutes of the game, the Mountaineers exploited the young Buckeyes inside the paint. West Virginia took 33 free throws, and guard Gia Cooke shot over half of them.

When Cooke had the ball, her single offensive strategy was get to the rim and listen for the whistle. Cooke wanted to break that tie and saw Lemmilä as her next target.

For younger players, and Lemmilä fits that bill after the Finnish center began playing the sport as an early teen, foul trouble means hesitancy. At that moment, Lemmilä was not timid. Instead, the 6’6” center blocked the Cooke layup attempt and all the Mountaineer could do was turn around, regroup, and come up with another idea.

On the next offensive possession, with Lemmilä still in the game, the center hit a jumper in the paint to give Ohio State its first lead in over seven game minutes.

Lemmilä never fouled out of the game. The center also grabbed a defensive rebound on the final shot of the game, a free throw that West Virginia tried to miss to get a two-point shot. Even though Lemmilä entered the quarter one foul away from leaving the game early, the sophomore was only one of two players who played the entire final 10 minutes.

Ava Watson

What does Martin’s fastbreak layup and Lemmilä‘s jumper have in common? Guard Ava Watson.

When Jaloni Cambridge left the game, Watson entered. The guard’s six points don’t jump off the stat sheet, but without Watson, the Buckeyes do not win. There was not a dip in those final few minutes from the starter Jaloni Cambridge to Watson.

Before Martin’s layup, Watson forced a West Virginia turnover on the opposite end of the court. Watson anticipated a pass, jumped and knocked the ball out of the air and towards the Buckeyes.

With 28 seconds remaining, Watson received the inbound pass that went to Lemmilä for the center’s shot that gave Ohio State the lead. Watson had options on the court like Gray and senior guard T’Yana Todd, two players with the potential to hit a deep shot. West Virginia knew that too and instead Watson found the open Lemmilä at the top of the paint.

Watson also provided offensively. In Ohio State’s 13-4 run to end the game, Watson scored all four of her points from the free throw line. The Buckeyes did their best West Virginia impression and earned some of the officiating crews’ whistles for themselves — Watson was the catalyst.

The sophomore guard attacked the basket with force and without a second thought. When West Virginia looked for stops, it instead saw Watson barreling down the lane. In the win, Watson also led the Buckeyes with four steals.

It was an entire team that let the Buckeyes pull away. Forward Kylee Kitts had a block and free throw. Todd had a key defensive rebound. Gray assisted on the Martin layup and had 15 points in the win.

“We had to really fight and scratch and claw and the one thing I told them, I don’t think we’d have won this game 10 days ago,” said McGuff. “I don’t think we were, at that point good enough, at this point in the year against a really, really good and well coached West Virginia team and but I think we’ve gotten better.”