The students could only wait so long.

After all, they had just witnessed No. 14 Ohio State defeat No. 5 Tennessee in the season opener for both teams. Not since 2008 had a team outside the top 5 started its season with an upset against a top-5 opponent.

Finally, security guards and stadium ushers stepped aside, and the Buckeye student section stormed the court, meeting their team to jump, cheer and capture the moment on iPhone videos.

Ohio State went from trailing by eight points at halftime and looking overmatched by the length and size of Tennessee to dominating the second half and securing an 87-75 victory over the Volunteers.

And though the win came in the first game of the season – far too early to determine overall success – Ohio State’s grit and intensity gave fans plenty to cheer about.

First Top-5 win for @OhioStateWBB since 2019. ✅

The 14-ranked Buckeyes take down No. 5 Tennessee on Tuesday night! pic.twitter.com/nk5mvag10v

— Ohio State on BTN (@OhioStateOnBTN) November 9, 2022

The Buckeyes put on a brilliant defensive performance. They pressed for most of the contest, with guards Jacy Sheldon and Taylor Mikesell providing pressure at the top, and forced Tennessee to commit 29 turnovers. That number is bad no matter how you look at it, but it gets worse when you consider Tennessee’s number of made field goals: 28. A game with more miscues than makes is rarely going to end in a victory.

Sheldon led the defensive effort with a career-high eight steals, while Emma Shumate came off the bench to provide rim protection, finishing with three blocks.

After advancing to the Sweet 16 last season, both squads have Final Four aspirations. The first game of the season isn’t indicative of late season success, but it provides a baseline for both squads.

Here’s what we learned from Ohio State’s historic victory.

Ohio State

The Buckeyes play a brand of defense that opponents will struggle with in the postseason.

Once Ohio State gets into Big Ten play, there will be squads that figure out how to beat it — but those are opponents who are familiar with Ohio State’s style and personnel. In the tournament, the Buckeyes likely will face unfamiliar opponents, and that works in their favor. The kind of high-intensity defense Ohio State plays is difficult to replicate in practice, and the real thing often catches teams off guard.

Early in the game, Ohio State struggled to finish around the rim (going 12-of-31), and even more so from beyond the arc (1-of-10), but they stayed within their offense and adjusted in the second half. Tennessee’s length and athleticism seemed to be an issue for Ohio State early, but once the Buckeyes got their defense working, the offense followed.

Sheldon and Mikesell will once again lead this team. Sheldon finished with 14 points and eight assists to go with her eight steals, and Mikesell led the team in scoring with 25 points (including four 3-pointers). But the Buckeyes also got an excellent showing from Rebeka Mikulášiková, who finished with 17 points and nine rebounds – a huge increase from 9.4 points and 5.0 rebounds per game last season. Her improvement might be the difference between another Sweet 16 finish and a Final Four run.

Tennessee

Tennessee needs to hope that the 29 turnovers were a result of opening-game jitters and not a bigger issue. Because if the Vols don’t take better care of the ball, it will be a long season of disappointment.

Another issue was the foul trouble Tamari Key endured. The 6-foot-6 center provides an excellent target on offense and a rim protector on defense, but she can’t do either of those things if she plays 13 minutes, as she did Tuesday. Finding a way to keep her on the floor will be crucial going forward; otherwise, Tennessee’s size advantage is much easier to neutralize.

Two positives for Tennessee were the play of Jordan Horston and Jasmine Powell. Horston led her team with 20 points and 13 rebounds – though she did commit seven turnovers. But the most important part of Horston’s game was simply that she played. After injuries kept her out of the NCAA tournament, the Vols are celebrating her return.

Meanwhile, Powell, who made her debut after transferring from Minnesota, fit right into the Volunteer offense. She went 7-of-12 for 19 points, and when she got downhill, no one on Ohio State could stay in front of the guard. But like Horston and the rest of the Vols, she had turnover problems, with five miscues.

The USA women's hockey team came out on top over the weekend, kicking off the four-game 2025 Rivalry Series against Canada by dominating their northern neighbors, outscoring them by an impressive 10-2 margin across the pair's first two games.

US forward Abbey Murphy emerged as a series star, scoring a natural hat trick in the team's 4-1 win in Cleveland on Thursday — the first three-goal turn by a USA player against Canada since team captain Hilary Knight did so at the 2023 IIHF Women's World Championship.

"I told [Murphy], 'You set the bar pretty high,'" said Knight, who added her own hat trick to the mix in Saturday's 6-1 victory in Buffalo.

"I love how we showed up," the 36-year-old continued. "We've been working like dogs since August and to get rewarded for our work, and see situations that we need to work on."

Notably, while the USA brought their entire 2025 world championship-winning roster to the first two Rivalry Series games, Canada chose to evaluate some fresh faces while resting a number of standout veterans, including their No. 1 goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens — a fact that should temper the sting of adding two big losses to their now four-game skid against the US.

With women's hockey taking over Milan at the 2026 Winter Olympics in February, the last two 2025 Rivalry Series matchups will more likely see both sides testing their final rosters for Italy.

How to watch the final games in the 2025 Rivalry Series

Canada will welcome the USA for the last two matchups in the 2025 Rivalry Series, with the puck dropping in Edmonton, Alberta, at 9 PM ET for both the December 10th and 13th clashes.

Both games will air live on the NHL Network.

The LPGA is bringing star power to Florida this week, as a wealth of women's golf talent — and one basketball superstar — tee off at the 2025 edition of The ANNIKA.

Kicking off the event on Wednesday was the annual Pro-Am, with Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark headlining the field for the second straight year.

World No. 2 golfer Nelly Korda once again joined Clark through her first nine holes, as Fever teammates Sophie Cunningham and Lexie Hull served as guest caddies.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

The four-day professional tournament will then tee off on Thursday, though current world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul will not be in attendance for the second year in a row.

Korda, however, will lead the charge to both defend her 2024 title and secure her first win of the 2025 LPGA season — as well as add to her full trio of trophies collected at The ANNIKA.

Four other Top-10 players will look to upend Korda's back-to-back bid, including No. 3 Miyu Yamashita, No. 6 Charley Hull, No. 9 Mao Saigo, and No. 10 Lottie Woad.

With the 2025 CMA Group Tour Championship capping the LPGA season later this month, The ANNIKA will also see golfers on the bubble — like US stars Rose Zhang and 2023 champion Lilia Vu — try to snag enough points to make the end-of-year tournament's final 60-player cut.

How to watch The ANNIKA 2025 LPGA tournament

Coverage of the fifth edition of The ANNIKA continues through Sunday, airing live on the Golf Channel.

The No. 3 UCLA Bruins rose to the occasion on Monday, looking like 2025/26 NCAA basketball championship contenders as they took down the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners 73-59 in Sacramento.

Utah transfer Gianna Kneepkens made the difference for the Bruins, leading all scorers with 20 points while opposing defenses limited both UCLA center Lauren Betts and Oklahoma big Raegan Beers to single digits.

Bruins forward Angela Dugalić also put up a standout performance, coming off the bench to score 16 points and snag 15 rebounds on Monday.

"There are so many weapons that I feel like it's hard for the defense to choose what to take away," Kneepkens said ahead of Monday's matchup. "What makes this team special is that any night could be someone's night."

Monday's clash with UCLA also served as the national broadcast debut of Oklahoma freshman guard Aaliyah Chavez, with the No. 1 high school basketball recruit seeing her first Top 10 NCAA matchup as a Sooner.

Chavez had a slow start against the experienced Bruins, registering 11 points, three assists, and two rebounds across her 32 minutes on the court.

How to watch UCLA basketball this week

The heat continues for No. 3 UCLA on Thursday, when the Bruins will host the No. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels at 9 PM ET, airing live on ESPN.

Newly formed offseason league Project B is stocking up, with Phoenix Mercury star forward Alyssa Thomas becoming the second big-name WNBA player to sign with the overseas venture ahead of its anticipated November 2026 debut.

Thomas follows Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike in joining Project B, a traveling tournament-style competition reportedly offering players significant pay raises into the seven- and even eight-figure echelon — as well as equity stakes in the league.

Thomas will still feature in the 2026 season of Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball this January, with the launch of Project B expected to conflict with Unrivaled's third season in 2027.

With salaries reportedly topping both Unrivaled and the WNBA, Project B's funding sources came into question after Ogwumike's announcement last week.

In February, The Financial Times named Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund as a league investor, though Project B co-founder Grady Burnett denied those claims to Front Office Sports last week.

However, the league is working with event partner Sela, a known subsidiary of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, though Burnett was quick to qualify that "Sela is one event partner that we pay money to. We do not have any dollars coming from them."

With the first season of Project B set to field 66 players, expect more high-profile signings to continue as the new venture adds to the increasingly crowded WNBA offseason space.