Mar 10, 2003 4 min read

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Ohio State coach Jim Foster didn’t need much time to turn a struggling program around. Courtney Coleman scored 19 points and LaToya Turner had 15 as Ohio State advanced to the Big Ten tournament championship for the first time in eight years with a 72-61 win over No. 14 Penn State on Sunday.

“You just dream it,” D’wan Shackleford said. “You dream it every day. You have to practice like champions to become champions.”

Kim Wilburn scored 12 points and Shackleford had 12 rebounds as the fourth-seeded Buckeyes (21-8) used a 13-0 first-half run to propel them to Monday’s championship game against No. 12 Purdue.

Ohio State won a double-elimination tournament in 1982. The Buckeyes lost in the 1995 championship game when the Big Ten tournament was restarted in its current format and last reached the semifinals in 1999.

However, after a 14-15 record last year, coach Beth Burns was fired. Foster was brought in from Vanderbilt, where he took the Commodores to 10 NCAA tournaments and one Final Four in 11 seasons.

He immediately instilled some defensive toughness.

The Buckeyes enjoyed a 40-29 rebounding advantage, outscored Penn State 40-22 in the paint and held Penn State to only 38 percent shooting from the floor.

“We’ve been playing very good defense for about a month now,” Foster said. “About a month ago, it started to click. Our defense has been ahead of our offense.”

They proved it Sunday.

Tanisha Wright scored 19 points for No. 1 seed Penn State (24-8) and Kelly Mazzante scored 19 on 6-for-20 shooting. Penn State went 8-for-28 from 3-point range.

“We had so many 3-pointers in the first half, I was ready to rip their arms off,” Penn State coach Rene Portland said.

The Lady Lions trailed by 13 early in the second half before making the game interesting. They went on a 14-2 run – capped by a 3-pointer by Jennifer Brenden – and closed to 64-58 with 1:26 left.

Wilburn was fouled, making the first and missing the back end, and Penn State recovered the loose ball. Fouling Wilburn was a sound strategy for Penn State. Wilburn – a 48 percent free-throw shooter during the regular season – could have sealed the win much earlier down the stretch but instead finished 2-for-10 from the line.

Wright made it 67-61 with a three-point play, then stole the inbounds pass. But she stepped out of bounds, Ohio State got the ball back and Caity Matter sank two free throws with 47.3 seconds left.

Matter, who averaged 15.3 points during the regular season, only had eight.

The Buckeyes used their quickness and size to control the inside game.

Coleman added eight rebounds while going 8-for-9 from the floor. Wilburn often beat Wright off the dribble and penetrated the lane for easy baskets – while dishing out eight assists.

“If I see an open lane, I try and take it,” Wilburn said.

Wright, the Big Ten defensive player of the year, said she was at fault for allowing Wilburn so many easy looks at the basket.

“She got too deep in the lane,” Wright said. “I let her get too deep. She was able to make something happen and I take the blame for that.”

The Buckeyes took charge late in the first half.

Wilburn’s layup put them ahead for good, then she forced a turnover which led to a 3-pointer by DiDi Reynolds. Reynolds, who scored 11, added another 3 during the run as the Buckeyes took a 38-27 lead into halftime.

They also frustrated Mazzante, the Big Ten’s leading scorer. She was 3-for-11 from the floor in the half, including four airballs.

“We were settling too much for outside shots instead of penetrating more,” Mazzante said.