Men’s Basketball: Aided by hot shooting start, No. 13 Ohio State hands Northwestern third consecutive Big Ten loss
Daily file photo by Joshua Hoffman
Sophomore guard Ty Berry gets ready to shoot against New Orleans earlier in the season. Berry’s career-high 23 points weren’t enough as Northwestern fell to No. 13 Ohio State 95-87.
January 9, 2022
Basketball is a mix of momentum, effort and luck, and Northwestern fell short in all three categories Sunday in their 95-87 loss to No. 13 Ohio State.
The Wildcats (8-5, 1-3 Big Ten) fell behind early to the Buckeyes, courtesy of preseason All-American forward E.J. Liddell, who recorded 17 points in the opening five minutes. When the halftime buzzer sounded, the Buckeyes had notched a season-high in first-half points with 51, aided by 66.7% shooting from the field and 56.3% shooting from three-point range.
The hot start from Ohio State (10-3, 4-1 Big Ten) dug NU into a deep hole, with coach Chris Collins frustrated with the squad’s opening defensive effort.
“Credit to Ohio State, the first five minutes of the game really told the story,” Collins said. “I was very displeased with our defense early in the game in a lot of areas.”
Despite the 12-point halftime deficit, the Cats exploded out of the intermission. Sophomore guard Ty Berry’s third triple of the second half cut the Buckeye lead to 55-51 with 15:45 to play. Berry tallied 23 points, a career-high, but nevertheless, NU was unable to cut the Ohio State lead any closer.
The Buckeyes rallied behind Liddell and company, stretching the lead thanks to near-perfect free throw shooting (20-for-21 in the second half). Late buckets from Berry, senior forward Pete Nance and redshirt junior center Ryan Young ultimately weren’t enough to overcome the Ohio State lead.
“You can’t win a game in the Big Ten giving up 95 points,” Collins said. “Every time we made a run, they found a way to get themselves to the free throw line … and then we could never really put real game pressure on them down the stretch.”
This is the Cats’ third-consecutive Big Ten loss and their fifth loss overall this season coming by eight points or fewer. By all accounts, NU has been extremely unlucky through 13 games, boasting a -0.156 KenPom Luck rating — a metric measuring the “deviation in winning percentage between a team’s actual record and their expected record,” per Pomeroy. That mark ranks 352nd out of 358 Division I teams.
Collins believes NU is only a couple of possessions away from an entirely different season outlook. And with three top-25 teams on the horizon in the next four games, the Cats will need to pick up some momentum as their NCAA Tournament prospects dwindle.
“This last week has been disappointing because we’ve put ourselves in a position where we’ve had three games and not won any of them,” Collins said. “We’ve got to keep working and keep fighting. We have great aspirations for what this team could be, and there’s still a lot of season left.”
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