But junior forward Cotie McMahon and the Buckeyes did just enough in the five-minute overtime.

“I’ll give two words to you,” Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “Competitive stamina. We didn’t do a lot of things particularly well. But we played hard. We had a high level of tenacity. We executed down the stretch at a high level. We are getting better, which is what you have to do in February.”

The Gophers (19-7 overall) fell to 7-7 in the Big Ten with Sunday’s home game against Oregon looming. Ohio State (21-3, 10-3) rebounded from losses at UCLA and USC — two teams ranked in the top seven in the country — by shooting nearly 60%.

McMahon scored a game-high 25 points, including OSU’s first four in the OT period. Freshman guard Ava Watson went 4-for-4 on three-pointers — the only treys OSU hit all game — and scored 16. Senior forward Taylor Thierry and freshman guard Jaloni Cambridge each had 10.

And Ohio State needed every point.

The Gophers, who had five players score in double figures in Hart, junior guard Amaya Battle (17), senior forward Annika Stewart (12), freshman guard Tori McKinney (10) and junior forward Mallory Heyer (10), only led the game for 19 seconds early in the first quarter.