Ohio State Eviscerates Northwestern 99-68 to Advance to the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals

INDIANAPOLIS — Ohio State aimed to play its best basketball in March. If Friday's performance wasn't it, I'm not sure what is.

The Buckeyes' first postseason game of the season was decided well before halftime, as top-seeded Ohio State blasted No. 9 seed Northwestern 99-68 to advance to the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals, tying a tournament record for points in a game in the process.

Even the players knew the game was going to get out of hand early. When asked when she thought the team was going to run away with it, Ohio State senior Shayla Cooper had a simple response:

"From the beginning of the game," She said after the game. "It was the pressure. I think the defensive pressure had a big affect on them. We wanted to get out running because we knew they played yesterday."

The tournament record for points ties the Buckeyes' own record which they set against top-seeded Penn State in 2014.

Ohio State lit up the nets from the start, shooting a staggering 56 percent from three-point territory in the first half. Kelsey Mitchell and Cooper alone combined for 27 points before the intermission, which was three more than Northwestern's team total of 24.

Mitchell finished with a game-high 27 points and Cooper finished with 11 points and a rebound shy of a double-double while both sitting the entire fourth quarter.

Linnae Harper, Kiara Lewis and Alexa Hart also reached double figures, all scoring 11 points while freshman Tori McCoy finished with 11 rebounds.

It wasn't just offense; the Buckeyes played aggressive tenacious defense forcing turnover after turnover. At one point in the second quarter, the Wildcats had just 17 points to their 15 turnovers.

"Coach McGuff put a big emphasis on making sure our 22 – our defense, that's what it's called – making sure that was really effective and making sure we applied pressure when the ball was put in," Mitchell said after the game. "When that happened, we were able to get turnovers and get deflections and I think that helped us over the course of the game."

Even bench players were having huge games. Ohio State junior Makayla Waterman had one of her better games as a Buckeye, finishing with eight points and seven rebounds.

"I kind of told myself before this 'it's March – if you want to play this is when you do it," Waterman said after the game. "I was happy with myself, I think my team was happy with me, I was happy my teammates. It was really fun today."

Northwestern was better against the Ohio State press in the second half, only turning the ball over 5 times in the second half, but it was far too late and the Buckeye offense didn't go away. Ohio State somehow topped its scoring output of the first two quarters in the third quarter, putting up 33 points to extend its lead to 84-47 entering the fourth quarter with most of the scoring coming from bench players.

"I think our bench in general really gave us a huge lift today," Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said after the game. "As we mentioned earlier, we wanted to utilize our depth and the pace of the game at which we play at to play against a Northwestern team who had played a hard-fought game yesterday. You can't do that unless you have people off the bench you can trust."

The Buckeyes coasted in the fourth, giving bench players minutes and starters valuable rest on their way to a 99-68 victory.

With the win, the Buckeyes advance to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals where they'll face No. 5 seed Purdue on Saturday at 4 p.m. The Boilermakers are the Big Ten's top defense and are coming off a come-from-behind win over No. 4 seed Indiana Friday afternoon.