The Buckeyes were either unprepared, unbothered, or both on Thursday night.
The Ohio State men’s basketball team (15-12, 7-9) welcomed a battered and bruised Northwestern team (14-13, 5-11) to the Schottenstein Center on Thursday night, needing and fully expecting to take care of business. However, the Wildcats, led by Nick Martinelli, were able to stun the Buckeyes at home, putting Ohio State’s NCAA Tournament hopes in a bit of jeopardy with four regular season games to go. The Wildcats went ahead by seven at halftime and opened the second half on a huge run to go up 20 points, never looking back and embarrassing the Buckeyes in their second-to-last home game of the season, 70-49.
Ohio State didn’t look good in the early going, recording two made baskets and six turnovers in the first eight minutes of the game. Northwestern took an early 10-5 lead and lulled the crowd to sleep, as Bruce Thornton started the game 1-for-4 from the floor and Micah Parrish and Devin Royal each turned the ball over twice in the opening minutes. The Buckeyes were playing some of the worst basketball they’ve played during conference play, but were still only down 10-7 by the under-12 media timeout.
The Wildcats were leaning on Nick Martinelli — the Big Ten’s leading scorer — and Ty Berry early on, with the two combining for 10 of Northwestern’s first 16 points. Martinelli was unguardable when he got anywhere near the basket with his floater, and Berry was knocking down long mid-range jumpers.
Thornton was the only one doing anything for the Buckeyes in the first half. Stewart scored at the 18:09 mark, but after that nobody other than Thornton scored for the Buckeyes until Parrish knocked down a three-pointer with 7:09 left in the first half. It was 11 minutes in between Stewart’s basket and Parrish’s basket, and in that time Northwestern went from down three points to up five points.
The Buckeyes would not get closer than five the rest of the half, going to the locker room trailing the visitors, 31-24. Thornton and Parrish had 10 points apiece in the first half. Northwestern got six points apiece from four different players, including Martinelli, who sat the final 7:03 of the first half with foul trouble.
Matthew Nicholson gets the rebound and slams it home @NUMensBball #B1GMBBall on FS1 pic.twitter.com/K3zqHXttWi
— Big Ten Men’s Basketball (@B1GMBBall) February 21, 2025
Northwestern opened the second half on a 9-0 run to push their lead to 40-24, the biggest it had gotten all night at the time, with 15:37 left in the game. The Buckeyes’ body language was nearly as bad as their defense, as Northwestern smelled blood and just kept on buying the Buckeyes heads into the dirt on their home court.
The Wildcats kept hitting tough shots and taking advantage of the Buckeyes hanging their heads, going up 52-29 with 12:06 left in the game, forcing Diebler to call timeout to try and talk some kind of logic into his quickly fading team. Through the first eight minutes of the second half, Northwestern had made eight baskets compared to the Buckeyes’ one.
A Martinelli layup extended Northwestern’s lead to a game-high 28 points with 9:24 remaining, 58-30. The question quickly became not if Ohio State would win the game, but would they set a record for fewest points scored in a Big Ten home game.
A beauty from @N_Martinelli1 @NUMensBball is rolling on the road against Ohio State pic.twitter.com/KCfBje26VF
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) February 21, 2025
Two years ago, Ohio State scored 41 points against Michigan State on February 12, 2023. The Buckeyes did get past that futile mark with Mobley knocking down a three-pointer with 3:49 left in the game, making it 64-43 Northwestern.
The final few minutes of the game didn’t matter too much — Northwestern knew Ohio State did not have the time to string together a run, and they milked the clock to finish the Buckeyes on their home floor, 70-49.
Martinelli led all scorers with 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting for Northwestern, which shot 46.3% as a team. Parrish was Ohio State’s leading scorer with 16 points. The Buckeyes shot 32.7% as a team.
If you weren’t around on Thursday night to see the Wildcats snap their three-game losing streak and stun Ohio State at home, here are a few key moments and plays that proved critical in Northwestern’s win:
Parrish finally ends the drought
Northwestern hasn’t been a great defensive team this season, checking in at No. 62 in the nation in defensive efficiency before Thursday’s game. But they had everyone other than Bruce Thornton in jail during the first half — every Buckeye not named Bruce was coming up empty on every single shot attempt as the Northwestern lead grew slowly.
Stewart scored to make it 5-2 just 1:51 into the game. For the next 11 minutes, Thornton scored six points for Ohio State and his teammates combined to score zero, as the Wildcats went from trailing to leading by five points. Micah Parrish finally drilled a three-pointer with just over seven minutes to go until halftime to make it 20-14, and he was also fouled and hit the free throw to make it 20-15.
Parrish finished with 16 points on the night, plus one rebound. He turned the ball over twice in 34 minutes.
Windham gives Northwestern a double-digit lead
After Thornton scored below the basket to make it 24-17 Northwestern with 5:42 left in the first half, Northwestern freshman guard K.J. Windham knocked down his 13th three-pointer of the season to give the Wildcats a double-digit lead on the road, 27-17.
Windham finished the game with 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting. He was a perfect 5-for-5 at the free throw line.
Buckeyes get embarrassed on the defensive glass to end the half
After Micah Parrish completed a three-point play to cut the deficit to 29-24 with 1:22 left until halftime, Northwestern’s Ty Berry went the other way and missed a three-pointer.
The Wildcats’ Justin Mullins grabbed the miss and tried a reverse layup, but missed. Nobody boxed out freshman Angelo Ciaravino, so he grabbed Northwestern’s second offensive rebound of the possession and tried to score, but missed again. Mullins grabbed that miss and tried to score over Evan Mahaffey, but missed again, and grabbed his miss again.
Finally, Mullins was able to score in traffic on Northwestern’s fifth shot attempt of the possession to make it 31-24 Wildcats.
Northwestern opens the half on 12-0 run to go ahead by 19
Even with all that’s at stake for Ohio State and the NCAA Tournament looming, the Buckeyes still did not come out with any sense of urgency to start the second half. Northwestern, who is basically out of NCAA Tournament contention unless they win the Big Ten Tournament, opened the second half on a 12-0 run to go ahead 19 points, 43-24, with 14 minutes remaining.
After going down 28, Ohio State cuts the deficit to 20!
Micah Parrish scored in transition with 5:40 left in the game, scoring over the top of Ty Berry to make it 60-40 Northwestern. Fans headed for the exits, as they had been for the past several minutes.
Whatever happened to staying for Carmen, eh?
What’s next?
Ohio State will jump on a plane and head to California, where they’ll take on UCLA on Sunday, followed by USC on Wednesday.
The Bruins have lost two of their last three games, including a stunning loss to Minnesota on Tuesday night. However, the Bruins are still 10-6 in the Big Ten, and are in a good spot for a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament.
Mick Cronin’s team scores the fourth-fewest points per game in the Big Ten at 75, but also allows the fewest per game in the conference, giving up just 64.7 per game.
Ohio State’s game against UCLA will tip off at 3:45 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on CBS.