Florida St.-Ohio St. Preview

3/22/2008 9:10 AM

By KATE HEDLIN
STATS Writer

Ohio State hasn't had much success in the NCAA tournament the last two seasons with two early-round exits.

Looking to end their frustration, the sixth-seeded Buckeyes open the tournament Saturday against 11th-seeded Florida State.

Ohio State (22-8) was knocked out of the second round of the NCAA tournament by Boston College in 2006, despite being a No. 1 seed. Last season, the Buckeyes were a No. 4 seed when they suffered a 67-63 upset to Marist in the first round. Now, after being ousted by Illinois in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament following winning a share of the regular season title, Ohio State is trying to avoid a repeat.

"We remember it a lot and we don't want that to happen again," senior guard Marscilla Packer said of the loss to Marist. "That loss is kind of motivating us."

The Buckeyes, who are 18-16 overall in the tournament, are making their sixth straight NCAA appearance. They lead the Big Ten in scoring with 71.7 points despite having lost their two leading scorers from last season in Jessica Davenport and Brandie Hoskins.

Jantel Lavender and Packer lead the Buckeyes this season with 17.5 and 15.2 points per game, respectively. Lavender, a freshman, said the team is looking to fix some things that went wrong in the 64-58 loss to the Illini in the conference tournament.

"We need to focus on small things," Lavender said. "I think we went away from the some things that we should focus on like defense."

The Buckeyes could be boosted by the return of Star Allen, who missed 18 games because of academic ineligibility. Allen, who continued practicing with the team, averaged 8.6 points and 7.1 rebounds before being forced to sit out.

"I like our look right now," coach Jim Foster said.

Ohio State and Florida State (18-13) have never played each other.

The Seminoles are making their fourth straight NCAA tournament appearance despite an uneven finish to the season. They were 7-7 in ACC play, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the conference tournament before losing 81-67 to Duke.

"Obviously we were ecstatic when our name flashed up on screen," coach Sue Semrau told the Seminoles' official Web site. "We thought we had a 50-50 chance."

Florida State struggled with consistency following the suspensions of three players during the season. Tanae Davis-Cain missed nine games in the middle of the season for violating team standards; Alysha Harvin was suspended for the first nine games because of academic reasons and Britany Miller was declared ineligible for the spring semester.

Miller, who has played just six games, was the top returning scorer and rebounder from last season.

Davis-Cain and Harvin have both returned. Davis-Cain is the Seminoles' leading scorer with 14.8 points per game while Harvin is averaging 8.5 points.

The Seminoles are 6-7 in the tournament. Last season, they advanced to the round of 16 before losing to LSU.