Echoes of a legend: Jaloni Cambridge and Kelsey Mitchell at Ohio State

Even compared to powerhouse coaches and programs like Geno Auriemma’s UConn Huskies and Pat Summitt’s Tennessee Volunteers, it’s an impressive track record of high-powered offensive guards. 

On Wednesday, Ohio State sophomore point guard Jaloni Cambridge matched one of Mitchell’s accomplishments by netting 33 points in a 108-84 win over the Penn State Nittany Lions. Those 33 points gave Ohio State its first scorer of at least 25 points in three consecutive games since Mitchell started a similar run on Dec. 31, 2016 and ended on Jan. 7, 2017. 

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Cambridge is the heir apparent to Mitchell in many ways. There’s the record book,  where each time the sophomore pulls off the spectacular, it’s followed by somebody pointing out that Mitchell was the last time it happened in scarlet and gray. 

After Mitchell scored 26 points in her NCAA debut on Nov. 14, 2014, Cambridge was the next Buckeye with at least 25 points in a debut — scoring 31 points nearly 10 years later on Nov. 5, 2024. Against the Illinois Fighting Illini on Jan. 7, Cambridge scored a career high 41 points, the first 40-point scorer since Mitchell had 45 points in the NCAA Tournament’s second round on March 20, 2017.

The guards’ stats are not where the similarities end — Cambridge plays like Mitchell too.

Similarities 

Embedded video links are placed at key moments in the highlight reel to illustrate specific points.

Mitchell and Cambridge, who stand at 5’8 and 5’7 respectively, are three-level scorers unafraid of driving to the basket and taking contact. 

As a sophomore, Cambridge is less apt to charge towards defenders as she was in her freshman season. The guard learned early that the opponents are bigger and stronger than in high school, even in a light nonconference schedule.

Mitchell also made some changes between her freshman and sophomore seasons. Mitchell led the Big Ten with 215 free throws as a freshman. As a sophomore, Mitchell took 229. Both guards began to incorporate more passing and creative offense. As a junior, Mitchell’s free throws and shots decreased and her assists went up. That season, Mitchell still led the Buckeyes with 22.6 points per game, but Mitchell’s ability to stop and hit a midrange jumper when teams expect a run into the paint. 

That part of Cambridge’s game improved for the 25-26 season. With such a focus on getting to the basket as a freshman, teams expect the same thing in Year 2. That is when Cambridge stops abruptly, loses her defender and hits a shot in the midrange. The accuracy of those shots also improved from Year 1 to Year 2. Cambridge makes 59.8% of her 12.7 attempts per game inside the arc this season, 11% higher than Mitchell’s career average and with 3.5 more attempts. 

Another similarity is the pace in which the two play. The reason both guards can run into the paint or get out in transition is the speed to get behind defenders and put them on their heels. Cambridge and Mitchell both make players move backwards or turn around to chase them on defense. Once that happens, its hard for anyone to defend either Buckeye.

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Differences

Skillset-wise, there is little difference between Cambridge and Mitchell. Cambridge is quicker than Mitchell, but Mitchell is certainly not slow. Mitchell cuts better to the basket around defenders, but that doesn’t mean Cambridge is bad at it. The difference lies in how the two guards approach games.

“They are similar in the fact that they’re both so quick up the court and they have command of the ball,” McGuff told reporters. “Kelsey [Mitchell] was a score first mentality, and Jaloni will certainly score — as we’ve seen of late — but she might be a little bit of a pass-first, then score.”

However, in the current stretch games for Cambridge, that has changed. Cambridge still passes, and has 6.7 assists per game across the previous three games; but Cambridge has also begun to take a bigger chunk of the scoring opportunities for the Buckeyes.

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In Big Ten play, Cambridge leads the conference with 26.3 points per game. Over the three wins against Illinois, Maryland and Penn State, Cambridge averaged 34 points. At Illinois, the home side went ahead in the third quarter and Cambridge responded with 12 points. To the Illini’s credit, they kept pushing and cut the deficit down to two possessions at the start of the fourth. So, Cambridge scored another 17 points.

Those 29 points, alongside three assists, meant Cambridge accounted for 35 of the Buckeyes’ 42 second half points. In the span of 1:28 of game clock in the fourth quarter against Maryland, Cambridge scored 8 points of a 10-point Ohio State run, and had the assist on the points she didn’t score. It turned a 2-point game into a 12-point lead that demoralized the Terrapins.

Despite the uptick in productivity before the Illinois victory, Cambridge does not report any difference in her approach. 

“I just been playing my game, taking what the defense gives me,” Cambridge said. “They’re going to give me open shots, I’m going to knock them down.”

A key area of improvement for Cambridge over the last week is 3-point shooting, an area where Mitchell excelled. Cambridge struggled from beyond the arc over the first 12 games of the season with only five made 3-point shots on 13.9% shooting. Against Illinois, Maryland and Penn State, Cambridge went 8-for-19. 

Against the Nittany Lions on Wednesday, Cambridge knocked down four of those eight chances, but the 3-point shot comes in a variety of ways. When Mitchell got going, it didn’t matter if there was a defender in her way, if she stood a few feet back from the arc or if Ohio State was on a fast break. Mitchell threw deep shots up and made 38.6% of them over four years in the Big Ten. Only Caitlin Clark made or shot more than Mitchell, who took shots from the logo years before the Iowan made it popular. 

Cambridge’s pass-first mentality means the sophomore is less likely to walk up the court and throw up a 3-point shot. Even that has changed for Cambridge over the last week. 

Confidence is riding high for the current Buckeye point guard and its yield for Ohio State is three victories, and two against teams currently ranked in the top 25. Those victories come in a season where expectations were low for the Buckeyes, who started the season outside of those same rankings. 

A quick glance at any Ohio State stat sheet shows Cambridge’s impact. The sophomore leads the Buckeyes with 21.8 points and 4.3 assists per game. Cambridge also sits second on the team with 2.3 steals per game and her 5.5 rebounds are third on the roster, only behind the two Ohio State bigs. That is another key similarity with Mitchell — they both clearly lead their respective editions of Buckeye women’s basketball. 

“I never really compared myself to anybody,” Cambridge said. “I know people talk it up all the time, but [Kelsey is] definitely way more shiftier than me. So definitely wouldn’t be a good comparison.”

The evidence suggests otherwise.