Jan. 16, 2007
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Jan. 17, 2007 -- 8/7 p.m. CT
Northwestern (10-7, 0-4) at No. 7 Ohio State (14-3, 2-1)
Value City Arena (18,500)
Columbus, Ohio
Radio -- WGN 720 AM (Dave Eanet and Nate Pomeday)
Television -- ESPN Plus Local -- WWME in Chicago (Mike Gleason & Bill Hosket)
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern takes on its second top 10 opponent in as many games when it travels to Columbus to take on No. 7 Ohio State at 7 p.m. CT Wednesday night. The game will be televised on ESPN-Plus Local with Mike Gleason and Bill Hosket calling the action.
In its last outing, Northwestern nearly pulled off its biggest upset in the modern era as they fell to the third-ranked Wisconsin Badgers, 56-50, in Evanston on Saturday. Jeff Ryan scored 18 points in his first career start to lead Northwestern.
Ohio State is 14-3 and currently sit in second place in the Big Ten. Its three losses have all come on the road against top 10 teams in North Carolina, Florida and Wisconsin. They are coming off a 68-66 home win over No. 17 Tennessee on Saturday where freshman center Greg Oden netted 24 points and 15 rebounds in the win.
Last Time Out: UW 56, NU 50
Freshman Jeff Ryan, filling in for leading scorer Kevin Coble who was out with an ankle injury, scored a game-high 18 points, but it was not enough as third-ranked Wisconsin came from behind to edge Northwestern, 56-50. Alando Tucker scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half as the Badgers won their 13th consecutive game. Ryan hit a 3-pointer from the corner with 52 seconds left to cut Wisconsin's lead to 52-50, but Kammron Taylor and Tucker each hit two free throws for the Badgers to clinch the win. Tucker, the Big Ten's second-leading scorer, finished 5-of-12 after shooting just 1-of-5 in the first half. He hit a 3-pointer that made it a four-point game with 5:19 remaining, and his acrobatic drive along the baseline made it 50-44 with 3 minutes left. Taylor was 3-for-12 and finished with 12 points after scoring a season-high 25 in Tuesday's 72-69 win over fifth-ranked Ohio State. Brian Butch added nine points and seven rebounds, and Marcus Landry scored eight and grabbed seven rebounds for Wisconsin. NU built its lead to as much as five, 36-31, five minutes into the second half. But the Wildcats hit a drought, converting just one field goal over the next seven minutes as Wisconsin went on a 8-2 run to take a one-point lead. Then, behind 15 second half points from Tucker, the Badgers made 8-of-10 FT's in the final four minutes to ice the win.
About The Buckeyes
The Buckeyes are led by a talented freshman class, headed by 7-foot center Greg Oden who is among the Big Ten leaders in blocked shots (1st-4.67) rebounding (3rd-9.0) and points (15th-12.7) in Big Ten games. He averages 14.9 ppg, 9.8 caroms and is shooting .611 percent from the field. Classmate Mike Conley, Jr., leads the Big Ten and ranks No. 4 nationally in assists per game (6.41) and is second in the league with 2.5 steals. Daequan Cook is second on the team with 14.2 ppg and 5.4 rebounds. Seniors Ron Lewis (12.7) and Ivan Harris (10.0) round out the leading scorers.
As a team Ohio State leads the Big Ten in scoring (78.7 ppg), FG percentage (.486), 3FG percentage (.389), 3FG made (151) and rebounds (37.5).
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