Ohio State Basketball: 3 takeaways from victory over Northwestern

Ohio State Basketball improves to 7-0 at home this season as they take down the Northwestern Wildcats in a Big Ten thriller. Here are three takeaways.

Ohio State Basketball was down their two point guards in CJ Walker with torn ligaments in his right hand and Jimmy Sotos with a shoulder injury. The #21 Buckeyes move to 10-3 as they were able to get revenge on Northwestern for defeating them earlier in the season as they took down the Wildcats 81-71 behind Duane Washington’s career-high 23 points. Here are three Ohio State takeaways from their victory.

No. 1: Great Job Without A Point Guard

Ohio State did a great job without a true point guard in the lineup against Northwestern. They had more assists than turnovers as they finished with 12 team assists and 11 turnovers. That is an impressive feat without a true ball-handler on the floor in a Big Ten game. The offensive spacing and ball movement were on full display as four players for the Buckeyes ended up in double figures and EJ Liddell wasn’t even one of them.

It shows the team can run the offense successfully even with significant injuries at that position which will pay dividends in their depth for a stretch run when everyone does return to the lineup.

No. 2: Winning the Paint When They Should

Being expected to win a specific facet of the game is one thing, but actually doing it is another, and Ohio State was expected to win the paint, and they did just that. The Buckeyes won the Rebounding battle 39-35.

They also did a great job of keeping Northwestern’s 6’10 Junior Pete Nance in foul trouble which kept him off the boards and limited his scoring opportunities which were huge in working towards the victory. They also matched the Wildcats with 26 points in the paint and they did that despite Liddell not scoring a single Field Goal in the game.

No. 3: Stellar Defense Does the Job

We all know the name of the game is putting the ball in the hoop, but you also want to do everything you can to make it difficult for the other team to do just that. Northwestern finished with 71 points and only had three players in double figures.

Other than Wildcat guard Chase Audige going off early and finishing with a game-high 25 points, the Buckeyes had a good game when it came to team defense. The Buckeyes only had one steal and Northwestern only had four total turnovers. However, they had to make tough shots and shots with hands in their faces to score.

That resulted in Ohio State holding them to 39.7% shooting from the field and just 26.1% from three-point range. It’s hard to win in today’s basketball shooting that low from deep and OSU did a great job of making them earn every point.

They will need to continue to do all of these things, plus more while getting healthy to stay in the win column moving forward. They next face #14 Illinois on the road this coming Saturday. Three of Ohio State’s next five games are against teams in the Big Ten that are in the top 15 in the country with two of those games on the road. A tough stretch ahead for the #21 Buckeyes as they keep fighting through the gauntlet of the Big Ten conference.