Ohio State women’s basketball moves to No. 8 in AP poll

Like the men’s basketball team, who cracked the AP Top 25 for the first time in nearly three years when the latest batch of rankings came out on Monday, the Buckeye women’s team continues to climb the rankings in hopes of eventually playing for a national championship at Nationwide Arena, just a few miles from the OSU campus.

In the latest AP Poll, OSU moved up two slots to No. 8, the highest position of any Big Ten team. Also representing the conference in the rankings are No. 14 Maryland, No. 19 Michigan, and No. 25. Rutgers.

At 16-2 overall, and 5-0 in conference play, head coach Kevin McGuff’s team sits alone atop the B1G standings, after their 77-62 win over Indiana on Saturday. Perennial Player-of-the-Year contender Kelsey Mitchell leads the league averaging 25.6 points per game, while red-shirt senior Linnae Harper comes in at 11th with 15.4.

Their classmate, Stephanie Mavunga, is second in the conference averaging 11.3 rebounds per contest, and Harper is chipping in with 8.8, ranking seventh in the B1G. For good measure, Harper is also tied for third in the Big Ten averaging 2.4 steals per game.

The Buckeyes will host Michigan on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET, and the game will be broadcast on BTN. The teams matched up earlier this month in Ann Arbor, Mich., with OSU earning a 78-71 win in overtime.