Game Analysis - Game 4 -UConn vs Ohio State

[Bone Dog]

I’m not as impressed by Lemillä as the rest of you. She’s long and quite mobile, and makes layups pretty reliably, and she’s a really good shot blocker. But her rebounding and boxing out seems only so-so. She looks to me rather like Pawnia Davis with one more year of D1 experience under her belt. She had two ‘pretty good’ games against significantly overmatched opponents this season, and a bunch of similarly ‘pretty good’ games last season.

Will she pose a challenge for Serah and Jana? Sure, because she is long and moves well. But she will not be a dominant factor in this game, by my guess. Her skillset is not well enough developed for that yet.

 

[Zarathustra]

Elsa Lemmilä may surprise in this game. After watching her in several videos I think she will test Williams.​

BUT... OSU is in the BIG 10, Serah W. Also Played the BIG 10 last year!! (Wisconsin,
of course). All those Blocks by Elsa in the highlight reel actually averaged out to 1.9 blocks PER GAME = 60 last year (as a freshman), though she did that in only 15.3 minutes per game. This should be fun to watch.

Elsa Lemmilä may surprise in this game. After watching her in several videos I think she will test Williams.​

SERAH WILLIAMS had 4 X the points (19.2 to 4.1ppg) and 2x the rebounds as ELSA (9.8 to 4.8 rpg). Please consider both were in the BIG 10 where SERAH was Defensive Player of the YEAR and ALL BIG 10... Need I say more???

 

[fomalhaut]

I looked at the box score of Ohio State's last game against Bellarmine. Bellarmine scored 0 points in the first quarter, OSU scored 26. Interesting.
Has UConn ever had a game and held our opponent scoreless in the first quarter? In any quarter?

According to the media guide, no:
Opponent fewest point in quarter
1 SMU (Second Quarter, 2/24/18)

 

[ucmiami2]

Just an FYI on Ohio State - their first two games were against two bottom of the mid-major table teams that so far are 0-5 against D1 opponents, each has won 1 game against a DII/DIII team. So their current stats are somewhat questionable, and Kitts is shooting 28.6% and Lamilla is at 45.5% (bad for a 6'6" center) from the field. Ohio St as a whole shoots the 3 at 23.3% with only Hobbs and Martin shooting 33.3% (the two combined average 5 threes attempted/game)

Even with playing 2 of 3 games against Major conference teams Uconn is shooting significantly better for the year (and that with Shade having a terrible shooting start to her season.)

 

[ucmiami2]

According to the media guide, no:
Opponent fewest point in quarter
1 SMU (Second Quarter, 2/24/18)

Media Guides are often based on older data - Bellarmine did score zero point in the first Q of the game on Nov. 13 according to the ESPN box score/play by play:

Ohio State 90-33 Bellarmine (Nov 13, 2025) Final Score - ESPN

Game summary of the Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Bellarmine Knights NCAAW game, final score 90-33, from November 13, 2025 on ESPN.

www.espn.com

 

[Centerstream]

Media Guides are often based on older data - Bellarmine did score zero point in the first Q of the game on Nov. 13 according to the ESPN box score/play by play:

Ohio State 90-33 Bellarmine (Nov 13, 2025) Final Score - ESPN

Game summary of the Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Bellarmine Knights NCAAW game, final score 90-33, from November 13, 2025 on ESPN.

www.espn.com

@fomalhaut was replying to a question about UConn not allowing any points in a quarter. I posted the question after seeing the box score of the Ohio State game you are referring to.

BTW can a team actually score zero points? 😲

 

[Gael]

Elsa Lemmilä may surprise in this game. After watching her in several videos I think she will test Williams.

Will she pose a challenge for Serah and Jana? Sure, because she is long and moves well. But she will not be a dominant factor in this game, by my guess.

Ohio State played Wisconsin once last season. Serah Williams scored 20 points and had 17 rebounds in 36 minutes. Elsa Lemmilä scored 0 points and had 1 rebound in 7 minutes.

Box score

Not conclusive but somewhat informative.

 

[ERWUC65]

Ohio State played Wisconsin once last season. Serah Williams scored 20 points and had 17 rebounds in 36 minutes. Elsa Lemmilä scored 0 points and had 1 rebound in 7 minutes.

Box score

Not conclusive but somewhat informative.

This could be the breakout game for Serah as she has a game in hand against Elsa showcasing her individual skills against the same opponent. I would expect Geno to construct an offense to support her in this regard.

 

[YKCornelius]

This could be the breakout game for Serah as she has a game in hand against Elsa showcasing her individual skills against the same opponent. I would expect Geno to construct an offense to support her in this regard.

You actually expect Geno - in the third game of a season and against a P4 opponent - to stray away from trying to bring cohesiveness between10+ players in UConn's offense, towards constructing a single game plan designed to showcase an individual's skills? Wow.

This ain't Toronto Metropolitan.....

 

[uconnfan68]

Just an FYI on Ohio State - their first two games were against two bottom of the mid-major table teams that so far are 0-5 against D1 opponents, each has won 1 game against a DII/DIII team. So their current stats are somewhat questionable, and Kitts is shooting 28.6% and Lamilla is at 45.5% (bad for a 6'6" center) from the field. Ohio St as a whole shoots the 3 at 23.3% with only Hobbs and Martin shooting 33.3% (the two combined average 5 threes attempted/game)

Even with playing 2 of 3 games against Major conference teams Uconn is shooting significantly better for the year (and that with Shade having a terrible shooting start to her season.)

So they'll shoot lights out today? Sure sounds like you cursed us.

 

[Tonyc]

Well its about 11 am and my daughter walked me through getting Peacock set up on my tv. Took some time indeed. I also have Peacock on my computer.

Some brief thoughts. It looks like Ohio St has one very good go to player. UConn will put the clamps on her and this game could be a blow out. We have the guards, we have the ballhandlers, we have the depth. Ohio St has the height but their height is not prolific scorers. UConn is quick, fast and suffocating. Im expecting more poise when shooting and this is a game where Jana and Serah need to show what theyve got against some height which is not really quick. I have UConn winning by over 20 however Geno may play more non starters if the game gets to far out of hand.

 

[NycUcWbbFan]

Live Stats:

• 11/16/2025: Ohio State at UConn

 

[Doctor G]

Great analysis, Sensei. Thanks again! This is likely to be the most competitive game yet.

It’s not easy to figure what tOSU’s rotation actually is yet. In the first two games, McGuff played 11, and ten of them got double figure minutes. The thing is, those were not competitive games. If he wants to run his usual pressing D, he’ll have to play the same deep bench against UConn. But this will be a much more competitive game against a team with numerous unflappable ball handlers. I think this is likely to mean that McGuff won’t like subbing in for his starting backcourt for long. Their fatigue is likely to be exacerbated by the depth of Geno’s backcourt.

Sarah Azzi KK Kayleigh Ash Blanca simply are not pressable. If Geno plays small ball, I think this game will quickly be out of reach. This might mean McGuff will try to play his bigs for longer. But that means no sustained press. It also means substantial minutes for Serah Jana Carol and Allie which is even more bad news for tOSU. The problem for McGuff is that he can’t out run UConn, but neither can he out-muscle them.

Great points regarding this excellent analysis. The game might be competitive for a while (and the first challenge of the year for our guards, maybe?); however, Ohio has not found a replacement for Cotie McMahon's all-big 10 production, UConn's top eight are starting to find their chemistry and rhythm, and I don't believe that Ohio's front-court and subs will be able to match up with UConn's bigs and bench.