Northwestern humbles Ohio State at home 70-49
COLUMBUS, Ohio — — Nick Martinelli scored 18 points and Northwestern pulled away in the second half to beat Ohio State 70-49 on Thursday night.
Ty Berry and K.J. Windham added 15 points each and Matthew Nicholson had 10 for Northwestern (14-13, 5-11 Big Ten), which snapped a three-game losing streak.
Micah Parrish scored 16 points and Bruce Thornton had 13 for the Buckeyes (15-12, 7-9). Double-figure scorers Devin Royal and John Mobley Jr. had just four each with Mobley not sinking a 3-pointer for the first time this season. The 49 points are a season low for Ohio State.
Leading by seven at halftime, the Wildcats scored the first 12 points of the second half with Berry and Windham scoring five each and Ohio State missing its first six shots. Northwestern’s lead grew to 28 midway through the half and wouldn’t dip below 20 until the final minute.
The Buckeyes had their only lead in the first few minutes of the game before the Wildcats went ahead, leading 31-24 at halftime.
Northwestern scored 18 points off 16 Buckeyes turnovers and its bench outscored Ohio State’s 25-8.
Northwestern, which lost double-figure scorers Brooks Barnhizer and Jalen Leach earlier this year to season-ending injuries, came into Thursday’s game having lost six of its last seven, and was 0-8 in true road games. But the Wildcats beat Ohio State for the third straight time, doing so for the first time since 1966-67. The win was also the first time Northwestern has strung together two straight road victories over the Buckeyes since 1932-34.
Ohio State plays at UCLA on Sunday. Northwestern plays at Minnesota on Tuesday.
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Northwestern Wildcats
Ohio State Buckeyes
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Game Information
2024-25 Big Ten Conference Standings
Men’s College Basketball News
| 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|
| NU | 31 | 39 | 70 |
| OSU | 24 | 25 | 49 |
| Team | CONF | GB | OVR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 12-2 | – | 20-5 |
| Michigan State | 12-3 | 0.5 | 21-5 |
| Wisconsin | 11-4 | 1.5 | 21-5 |
| Purdue | 11-5 | 2 | 19-8 |
| Maryland | 10-5 | 2.5 | 20-6 |
| UCLA | 10-6 | 3 | 19-8 |
| Illinois | 9-8 | 4.5 | 17-10 |
| Oregon | 8-8 | 5 | 19-8 |
| Nebraska | 7-9 | 6 | 17-10 |
| Ohio State | 7-9 | 6 | 15-12 |
| USC | 6-8 | 6 | 14-11 |
| Indiana | 6-9 | 6.5 | 15-11 |
| Minnesota | 6-9 | 6.5 | 14-12 |
| Rutgers | 6-10 | 7 | 13-14 |
| Iowa | 5-10 | 7.5 | 14-12 |
| Northwestern | 5-11 | 8 | 14-13 |
| Washington | 4-11 | 8.5 | 13-13 |
| Penn State | 4-12 | 9 | 14-13 |
After wearing her customized shoes, Jake Diebler pays emotional tribute to Charley Bauer
With a Northwestern game to preview and a Michigan game to continue to review, Ohio State’s Jake Diebler had something else on his mind Wednesday afternoon.
One day before the Buckeyes host the Wildcats in a game they need to remain on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, Diebler instead opened Wednesday’s press conference with an emotional message. On Jan. 27, Diebler and his coaches donned customized shoes created by patients at Nationwide Children’s Hospital as part of the annual Coaches vs. Cancer college basketball event.
Diebler’s shoes were designed by Charley Bauer, a 21-year-old student in Ohio State’s college of nursing who was battling acute myeloid leukemia. Sunday, Bauer passed away due to complications from a bone marrow transplant. She was supposed to be in her third year at Ohio State.
Wednesday, an emotional Diebler spent the first nearly five minutes of his press conference speaking through red eyes and sharing his condolences.
“Oftentimes, especially this time of year, things get moving so fast,” he said. “When you’re dealt information like that, it really forces you to take a second to pause and reflect and it’s forced me to reflect on the honor it was to wear those, get to know her mother and since her mother and father.”
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When Diebler and members of his coaching staff went to Nationwide to receive the customized shoes, Bauer’s mother, Alyssa, was there on behalf of her daughter. Owing to flu season, none of the children who decorated the shoes were able to leave the cancer ward at the hospital, but Diebler was able to spend time with Alyssa Bauer and get to know her and her daughter’s story.
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He was never able to meet Charley Bauer, but that did not diminish the impact of the shoes and the connection made with the family.
“To hear even more of her story and the courage and the bravery that she showed, that’s just something I’ve been thinking about,” Diebler said. “I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight certainly that event, what it meant, raise awareness for children’s cancer, how awful it is and how hard it is for families and encourage people to continue to support and help in any way they can.”
To that end, Charley’s brother, Jack, started a fundraiser for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s 2025 Student Visionaries of the Year campaign. You can read about it and donate by clicking here.
So far, the page has received 145 comments. The most recent one is from his sister, who wrote on Jan. 31, “I am so proud of you Jack! I know my Leukemia diagnosis has been hard on you, but you have found an amazing way to support other families who are facing the same challenges as ours. Way to shine a light on blood cancer!”
“When you get to know someone personally or a family personally that goes through something like that, it’s hard,” Diebler said. “Cancer’s something that it feels like everybody knows someone that is impacted by it. That was some unfortunate news we got recently and wanted to take this opportunity to bring awareness back to that. Our thoughts and prayers are with Charley’s family.”
Charley Bauer was diagnosed last May when she returned home to Northwest Ohio and asked her parents to take her to urgent care because she felt ill. That night, she was admitted to the oncology floor, quickly transferred to Central Ohio and began chemotherapy within 48 hours. Designing the shoes, while on a floor where she could see Ohio State but not physically visit, was something her mother said brought her joy.
“These shoes were a chance for them to do something that felt totally disconnected from the hospital and to be creative,” she said after handing over the shoes. “The connection of feeling like she was part of anything at Ohio State is what she liked about it.”
After the Iowa game, Diebler was stopped by a family friend of the Bauers and asked to record a video for Charley. Diebler said he has talked with Alyssa Bauer and her husband, Jeremy, since their daughter passed and was moved to learn his message had been relayed.
“It sounds like, according to her parents, she really enjoyed that,” he said. “The strength and courage her family is showing and the way they talk about her and the way she was these last few weeks of the joy she had while fighting this awful, awful thing, it just was really impactful for me. You hate to think of it that way, but just the grace that they had, that it can even impact someone like me just having a conversation with them I thought was really special.”
ajardy@dispatch.com
@AdamJardy
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Northwestern vs. Ohio State prediction, odds, time: 2025 college basketball picks, Feb. 20 bets by top model
The Northwestern Wildcats battle the Ohio State Buckeyes in a key Big Ten Conference matchup on Thursday. Northwestern is coming off a 68-64 loss to Nebraska on Sunday, while Ohio State dropped an 86-83 decision to Michigan that same day. The Wildcats (13-13, 4-11 Big Ten), who have lost six of seven, including three in a row, are 0-8 on the road this season. The Buckeyes (15-11, 7-8 Big Ten), who have won five of eight, are 10-5 on their home court.
Tip-off from Value Center Arena in Columbus, Ohio, is set for 6:30 p.m. ET. Ohio State is a 9.5-point favorite in the latest Northwestern vs. Ohio State odds from SportsLine consensus, while the over/under for total points scored is 142.5. The Buckeyes are -518 (risk $518 to win $100) money line favorites, while the Wildcats are +387 underdogs. Before making any Ohio State vs. Northwestern picks, check out the college basketball predictions from the SportsLine Projection Model.
The model simulates every Division 1 college basketball game 10,000 times. It enters Week 16 of the 2024-25 season on a 213-158 betting roll (+1675) on all top-rated college basketball picks dating back to 2023. Anyone following at sportsbooks and on betting apps could have seen huge returns.
Now, the model has set its sights on Northwestern vs. Ohio State. You can visit SportsLine now to see the picks. Here are the college basketball lines and trends for Ohio State vs. Northwestern:
Junior guard Bruce Thornton is coming off back-to-back 17-point performances. He poured in 31 points, while adding five rebounds, five assists and three steals in a 73-70 win over Maryland. In 26 games, all starts, he is averaging 17.3 points, 4.4 assists, 3.5 rebounds and one steal in 35.6 minutes. He connects on 51.4% of his field goals, including a blistering 45.8% from 3-point range, and 82.9% of his free throws.
Sophomore forward Devin Royal has been dominant at times. In 25 games, including 21 starts, he is averaging 14 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 27.7 minutes. In Sunday’s loss to Michigan, he poured in 26 points, while grabbing five rebounds. He had 29 points and grabbed seven rebounds in an 87-79 loss at Illinois on Feb. 2. See which team to pick here.
Junior forward Nick Martinelli has registered five double-doubles on the season, including a 23-point and 10-rebound effort in a 76-71 loss at Washington on Feb. 8. He had 27 points and 13 rebounds in a 77-75 win over USC on Feb. 4. He is coming off a 23-point and nine-rebound effort in the loss to Nebraska on Sunday. In 26 games, all starts, he is averaging 19.8 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 37.7 minutes.
Senior guard Ty Berry has been on a roll. He is coming off back-to-back 23-point and two-rebound performances in losses to Nebraska on Sunday and at Oregon on Feb. 11. He had 23 points and seven rebounds in a 79-70 win over Indiana on Jan. 22. In 26 games, including 21 starts, he is averaging 10.1 points, three rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.1 assists in 27.9 minutes. See which team to pick here.
SportsLine’s model is going Over on the total, projecting 147 combined points. It also says one side of the spread hits in well over 50% of simulations. You can only get the pick at SportsLine.
So who wins Ohio State vs. Northwestern, and which side of the spread hits in well over 50% of simulations? Visit SportsLine now to see which side of the spread to jump on, all from the advanced model that is up more than $1,600 on its college basketball picks dating back to 2023, and find out.
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