For an hour and a half in Columbus on Tuesday night, Northwestern had held off Ohio State. It had hit timely shots, gotten timely stops, and answered every Buckeye run. But in crunch time, the Wildcats crumbled, and their 39-year winless streak in Columbus sustained itself on a 71-63 loss.
The story of the first half was Northwestern's offense. The Wildcats didn't necessarily do anything systematically different, but shots were falling.
Even on the opening two possessions of the game, when Tre Demps and Bryant McIntosh hit threes, the effect of Ohio State's athleticism was apparent. The Wildcats couldn't get anything going to the basket.