Ohio State basketball: E.J. Liddell carries OSU to win vs. Northwestern

The Ohio State basketball team had an embarrassing loss earlier this week when they got destroyed by Indiana. No one played well enough in that game for the Buckeyes to win. That was not the case on Sunday when they came back home to take on Northwestern.

E.J. Liddell had an electric start, scoring 17 of Ohio State’s first 19 points in the game. He finished with 34, which was a new career-high. That effort was good enough for the Buckeyes to get the win, as they beat Northwestern 95-87 after a strong comeback effort by the Wildcats.

Besides Liddell, the effort from beyond the arc was another big reason why the Buckeyes were able to walk away with a victory. They made 11 of their 25 attempted three-point attempts, which is good enough for 44%. That’s an extremely high clip for any team.

Ohio State had some other key contributors in this game as well. Malaki Branham continues his hot post-COVID playing as he had 24. Half of those came from the free-throw line, as he was 13-14 from the charity stripe. He is blossoming into a really good player.

Meechie Johnson hit some key threes in this game as well. He seems to hit big shots whenever the Buckeyes need him to. Besides the scoring in this game, some key defensive plays in the first half made the gap too much for Northwestern to clear. The Wildcats had 12 turnovers and had 8 shots blocked.

This is the type of performance that the Buckeyes needed after their game against Indiana. Liddell specifically needed a game like this. He hadn’t played well in the games since the COVID pause. It’s good to see him have his legs back and playing at a high level.

The Ohio State basketball team plays Wisconsin next, so they need to be playing some good ball. They did in this one, even without Chris Holtmann who was out due to COVID. it’s a good win for the program.