To say that Ohio State guards Samantha Prahalis and Tayler Hill provide coach Jim Foster with a formidable 1-2 punch would be an understatement.

That backcourt duo has been nothing short of dynamic this season and is a constant source of production for an uptempo Buckeyes squad currently ranked 10th in the country.

An off-guard from Minneapolis, Hill leads OSU with 21.5 points per game and is one of the most lethal outside shooters in the Big Ten with 61 made three-points and a shooting percentage of 43.0 from deep. She also leads the team with 58 steals and has added 51 assists while averaging 36.3 minutes per game.

Prahalis, meanwhile, continues to set new standards. A feisty playmaking point guard from Commack, N.Y., Prahalis is averaging 19.6 ppg and 37.0 mpg, leads the team in assists (155) and free-throw percentage (84.5), and is right behind Hill with 54 steals per game.

In OSU’s last outing, she poured in a career-high 34 points in Monday’s decisive win over Wisconsin and was named Big Ten Player of the Week for the third time this season and seventh time in her brilliant career. She was 12 of 18 from the field against the Badgers, 4 of 5 from long range, and added two rebounds, five assists and four steals.

The output moved Prahalis into fifth place on Ohio State’s all-time scoring list for women’s basketball with 1,848 points and she is on pace to set the Big Ten’s all-time assists record.

Heading into Thursday night’s key contest at Illinois, the Buckeyes stood at 21-2 overall and 8-2 in the Big Ten in their quest for yet another Big Ten title. Either Hill or Prahalis or both have led Ohio State in scoring in all 23 games so far this season.

Their uncanny consistency and Ohio State’s claim as one of the nation’s elite teams has led to even more notice for the pair as the U.S. Basketball Writers Association recently included both players among the top 20 that comprise its first Midseason Watch List for the Women’s National Player of the Year. Members of the association’s board of directors chose the players to be included on the list as contenders for the trophy, which will be presented to the POY in Denver at the USBWA’s Women’s College Basketball Awards Breakfast on April 3.

Stanford, Baylor, Connecticut, Miami (Fla.) join Ohio State with two players on the list while Notre Dame has three candidates.

The Irish trio are Skylar Diggins, Natalie Novosel and Devereaux Peters. Nneka Ogwumike and her younger sister, Chiney Ogwumike, are the Stanford representatives.

Five National Players of the Week from this season are featured as well: Brittney Griner from Baylor, Elena Delle Donne from Delaware, Nneka Ogwumike from Stanford, Sugar Rodgers from Georgetown, and A’dia Mathies from Kentucky. Last season’s women’s winner as the National Freshman of the Year, Odyssey Sims of Baylor is also among the players to watch down the stretch. The lone frosh on the current watch list is UConn forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis.

Following is the complete watch list:

2012 WOMEN’S PLAYER OF THE YEAR MIDSEASON WATCH LIST
G/F Elena Delle Donne, Delaware (6-5, Jr., Wilmington, Del.)
G Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame (5-9, Sr., South Bend, Ind.)
G Chelsea Gray, Duke (5-11, So., Stockton, Calif.)
C Brittney Griner, Baylor (6-8, Jr., Houston)
G Bria Hartley, Connecticut (5-7, So., North Babylon, N.Y.)
G Tayler Hill, Ohio State (5-10, Jr., Minneapolis)
G Shenise Johnson, Miami (5-11, Sr., Henrietta, N.Y.)
G A’dia Mathies, Kentucky (5-9, Jr., Oakland, Calif.)
F Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Connecticut (6-0, Fr., Anaheim Hills, Calif.)
G Natalie Novosel, Notre Dame (5-11, Sr., Lexington, Ky.)
F Chiney Ogwumike, Stanford (6-3, So., Cypress, Texas)
F Nneka Ogwumike, Stanford (6-2, Sr., Cypress, Texas)
F Devereaux Peters, Notre Dame (6-2, Sr., Chicago, Ill.)
G Samantha Prahalis, Ohio State (5-7, Sr., Commack, N.Y.)
F Niveen Rasheed, Princeton (6-0, Jr., Danville, Calif.)
G Sugar Rodgers, Georgetown (5-11, Jr., Suffolk, Va.)
G Khadijah Rushdan, Rutgers (5-9, Sr., Wilmington, Del.)
G Odyssey Sims, Baylor (5-9, So., Irving, Texas)
F Alyssa Thomas, Maryland (6-2, So., Harrisburg, Pa.)
G Riquna Williams, Miami (5-7, Sr., Pahokee, Fla.)

By conference: Big East (7); ACC (4); Big Ten (2); Big 12 (2); Pac-12 (2); CAA (1); Ivy (1); SEC (1).

By class: seniors (8), juniors (6), sophomores (5), freshmen (1).