Northwestern's Princeton-style offense, which minimizes the number of possessions in a game, has obviously given Ohio State some serious problems this season, but, once again, the Buckeyes prevailed, and they will play Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals tomorrow afternoon.
The contest was close throughout, and it came down to the final minutes of regulation. Alex Marcotullio's 3-pointer at the 2:09 mark gave NU a 52-51 lead before Jared Sullinger evened the score 69 seconds later with a free throw. Following Sullinger's charity toss, each team missed a potential winning shot, including Sullinger's turn-around jumper as time expired.
The Wildcats, who had played the previous day, ran out of gas in overtime. Ohio State quickly built up a four-point lead, and Jon Diebler's clutch 3 moments later sealed the Buckeyes' victory.
Jared Sullinger was nearly unstoppable in his 1st career postseason game. The conference's freshman of the year scored 20 points and hauled in 18 rebounds. Sullinger also made 10 free throws in the extra session and a mind-boggling 16 overall.
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| Sullinger's impressive double-double helped OSU escape |
Meanwhile, the Big Ten's 6th man of the year, Aaron Craft, was almost as good as Sully. Craft scored 17 in addition to compiling 7 boards, and the point guard's play at the end of the 1st half was nothing short of magnificent. Craft tipped in a Deshaun Thomas miss at the buzzer, capping off his streak of 7 consecutive points.
Northwestern did not have Jon Shurna when the Cats lost by 1 point to OSU on January 29th, and, even though Shurna scored 23 on this day, the final result was the same.
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