Northwestern entered Big Ten conference play this season with 10 victories for the first time in school history following an 85-59 New Year's Eve throttling of Northwestern State.  They haven't won since.  The Wildcats fell to 10-8, and remain in last place in the Big Ten (0-5), following Wednesday night's 73-41 blowout loss at Ohio State.

The loss wasn't unexpected but was certainly disappointing after such a stellar showing last week against the Big Ten leading Wisconsin Badgers.

Strong rebounding, better bench play, and the ability to capitalize on errors allowed the Buckeyes to dominate Northwestern from the opening whistle.

Ohio State pulled down 35 rebounds and put up 11 second chance points.  A rare bright spot for Northwestern was holding freshman center Greg Oden to only 5 points.  Oden did however lead all players with 6 rebounds and 5 blocks.

The Buckeye bench put up an impressive 22 points compared to Northwestern's 11.  That attack was led by freshman forward Ohtello Hunter, who managed an impressive 10 points and 5 rebounds in only 20 minutes of play.

Most importantly though, Ohio State managed to turn 17 Wildcat turnovers into 25 points.  Northwestern guard Craig Moore had a team high 11 points but was also responsible for 5 of those 17 turnovers.

As great as the Buckeyes played, Northwestern did absolutely nothing to help themselves.  The team shot a pathetic 33 percent from the floor for the game and only 28 percent from three-point range.

The Wildcats shot especially bad in the first half going 7 of 25 from the floor (28 percent).  Three-point shooting was flat out embarrassing; 9 percent from the floor on 1 of 11 shooting.  This game was over after only 20 minutes of play as Northwestern lagged behind 34-15 entering the second half.

#7 ranked Ohio State improves to 15-3 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten.

On the flip side, unranked Northwestern has dropped their last five and remain dead last in the Big Ten.  In search of their first conference win, the Northwestern University Wildcats head to Minneapolis for a Saturday matchup with the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers (14-6, 2-3).  

After that, it's back to Evanston on January 24th for a Wednesday night rematch with Ohio State.  Here's to hoping homecourt really is an advantage.  The Wildcats will need it.