No. 10 Ohio State returned from their Christmas break to a regular-season schedule that only has Big Ten opponents remaining, which included Rutgers, who the Buckeyes defeated 77-63 on the road.

For the first time in three games, the Buckeyes had point guard Jaloni Cambridge in the starting lineup. The freshman injured her right shoulder against Ball State on Dec. 10 and her status was day-to-day up until the Rutgers game.

Having Cambridge back on the court set up a matchup between two of the top freshman in the conference, as Rutgers’ freshman starter Kiyomi McMiller averages 20.9 points, the second highest in the Big Ten. Cambridge has averaged 13.9 across nine games.

On Sunday, Cambridge recorded 2 points and McMiller had 14, with half her points scored in the fourth quarter.

“We did a decent job of making her earn everything that she got,” Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said. “That was the goal. You know you’re not going to shut her out, but you want to make sure that you have taking contested shots and I think we did that collectively as a team pretty well.”

The more prevalent battle during the game was between Ohio State forward Ajae Petty and Rutgers forward Destiny Adams. Both had double-doubles, Petty with 16 points and 10 rebounds while Adams scored 31 and grabbed 17 rebounds.

Adams, one of three Big Ten players averaging over 10 rebounds per game, led Rutgers to win the rebound battle 45-41.

“She was tough, quick post player, physical,” Petty said. “It was good being able to play against somebody who can play like that.”

Petty was tied with junior Cotie McMahon for a team-high points against Rutgers.

The Buckeyes started with sloppy ball movement during their first two possessions, while the Scarlet Knights were strong in their half-court defense. Rutgers got hands on three Ohio State passes before fouling Petty on a layup and sending her to the free throw line, where she went 1-for-2 for the first points of the game at the 8:51 mark.

With both teams preferring to run fast-tempo offenses, it was Ohio State who had a quicker start.

Going on a 13-4 run throughout the first 2:45 minutes of the opening quarter, the stretch began when Cambridge recorded one of her two steals of the game and found junior teammate Chance Gray for a layup while making a 2-on-0 fastbreak.

“That’s just another thing that coach McGuff talks to us about, just being able to handle the lead the correct way,” Petty said. “We came out a little lackadaisical, but we all want to win, so we just made adjustments.”

Rutgers came out of a timeout following the Buckeyes’ run and over the course of 5 minutes, cutdown the deficit to as little as 4 points. Ohio State built back its distance between the Scarlet Knights by the end of the quarter with a 23-16 advantage.

Ohio State’s lead grew to 21 points in the second quarter behind the efforts of Taylor Thierry. The senior record 8 points, just one less than the whole Rutgers lineup in the quarter, and the Buckeyes finished ahead 46-25.

Coming out of halftime, the Scarlet Knights had the hot hand. Led by Adams and senior Jojo Lacey, Rutgers went on a 9-0 run in the first 2:30 of the third.

“They didn’t quit playing, they kept playing hard,” McGuff said. “And this has been a little bit of a trend unfortunately when we have a lead, we don’t do the things that allowed us to get the lead.”

Similarly to the run Rutgers had in the first half, the Scarlet Knights were unable to keep the momentum and Ohio State never allowed Rutgers to come within 9 points in the half, despite outscoring the Buckeyes 38-31.

The Scarlet Knights were forced to play more conservatively in the fourth quarter with Adams and McMiller on the court with four fouls each. Neither fouled out, but Ohio State took advantage of the situation by attacking both players in one-on-one matchups.

Ohio State, now 13-0, is back at Value City Arena on Jan. 5 and will face Northwestern at 1 p.m.

bmackay@dispatch.com

@brimackay15