The No. 18/20 Ohio State women’s basketball team opens its 2026-27 season at home on Monday, Nov. 2, hosting UIC at 6:30 p.m. ET, Ohio State Athletics announced on Oct. 31. The game will be broadcast on B1G+ and AM 1460, giving Buckeye fans their first look at a roster that returns most of the scoring from last season’s team.
Ohio State Athletics said the Buckeyes return eight players from the 2025-26 roster, including five players who started at least 16 games apiece, and bring back 75 percent of the team’s total scoring. That continuity is the foundation of the Buckeyes’ preseason ranking and their expectations in a crowded Big Ten race.
Junior guard Jaloni Cambridge leads that group. According to Ohio State Athletics, Cambridge was named to the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year Preseason Watchlist and the Naismith Trophy Watch List and earned a spot on the Preseason All-Big Ten Team after a sophomore season in which she led the Big Ten in scoring at 23.2 points per game, became the second player in program history to score 800 points in a season, won the Dawn Staley Award and earned All-American honors from every major outlet.
The opener also carries a pregame honor. Ohio State Athletics said fans should be in their seats early for a pre-game recognition for Kennedy Cambridge, who broke the program’s single-season steals record last season. K. Cambridge finished with 130 steals in 2025-26, ranking second in Big Ten history since the 1981-82 season, and earned All-Big Ten Defensive Team honors and a semifinalist spot for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, according to Ohio State Athletics.
Inside, junior center Elsa Lemmilä was named to the Lisa Leslie Center of the Year Award Preseason Watchlist, Ohio State Athletics said. Lemmilä led the Big Ten in blocks last season on her way to a spot on the All-Big Ten Defensive Team as a sophomore, giving the Buckeyes a rim protector behind their pressure defense.
UIC arrives as a tested first opponent. Ohio State Athletics said the Flames were selected sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference Preseason Poll and placed four players on the MVC Players to Watch List: Nevaeh Foster, Tutu Clayton, Julia Coleman and Salma Khedr. Coleman was named to the All-MVC Third Team, All-MVC Defensive Team and All-MVC Newcomer Team at the end of the 2025-26 season, according to Ohio State Athletics.
The Flames finished last season 14-18 overall and 9-11 in conference play, ending their year with a loss in the first round of the conference tournament, Ohio State Athletics said. A road opener at a ranked Big Ten opponent is a step up from that finish, and UIC’s experienced watch-list core is the reason the Flames cannot be treated as a tune-up.
Monday’s festivities extend beyond the game itself. Ohio State Athletics said a schedule poster giveaway will be available to the first 1,000 fans to arrive, and the Women’s Final Four trophy will be on display in the Fred Taylor Room — a nod to how close this program has come to the sport’s final weekend and what this roster is chasing.
For Columbus fans, the opener is also a first measuring stick. With Cambridge running the offense, Lemmilä protecting the rim and three-quarters of last season’s scoring back, how the Buckeyes share the ball and defend in their first live game will say more than the final margin about where this team starts the winter.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know is the setting and the stakes: a ranked Ohio State team, at home, on Monday night, against a UIC squad picked sixth in its league with four watch-list players, per Ohio State Athletics. What we’re still waiting on is the Buckeyes’ first rotation in a real game — which newcomers earn minutes, and how the returning starters look together after the offseason. Those answers only come once the ball goes up.
What happens next is tip-off at 6:30 p.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 2, on B1G+ and AM 1460. Ohio State Athletics said ticket information is available through its ticket office, and fans attending in person should arrive early for the poster giveaway, the trophy display and the pregame recognition for Kennedy Cambridge. Related coverage: No. 3 Ohio State Women Beat Michigan 3-1 for Ninth Straight Win and Freshman Luke Fahey Expected to Start at QB for No. 2 Ohio State at USC Tonight.
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