The Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament kicks off Thursday at 12:00 noon EST when #8 seed Ohio State (15-17, 5-11) and #9 seed Northwestern (15-14, 5-11) face each other. Ohio State has staggered to the finish line this past month, having lost 6 of 7 games.
However, their win was against Northwestern 71-62 on February 23rd, so this appears to be a good match-up for the Buckeyes. Also during the month, Northwestern has similarly lost 7 of 8 games, so the Wildcats haven’t been finishing with momentum, either. In their previous meeting, Ohio State got out to a 41-21 halftime lead with some blistering shooting (48% FG, 62% 3Pt), and held on for the win as Northwestern stormed back with a 41-point second half themselves.
Ohio State was led by Ameryst Alston (30 points), Martina Ellerbe (13 pts, 6 rbs) and Raven Ferguson (11 pts, 9 rbs). Northwestern countered with Maggie Lyon (21 pts), Lauren Douglas (13 pts), Christen Inman (10 pts) and Nia Coffey (9 pts, 18 rbs).
Wrap-up
Here is the previous game preview and recap between these teams. Not much to add with this one; Ohio State obviously needs to break their pattern of “good half – bad half” to put together forty solid, well played minutes of basketball. It will again come down to executing the basics; shooting, ball-handling and rebounding.
The game is scheduled for Thursday, tipping off at 12:00 PM from Indianapolis. Television coverage will be provided by BTN, check your local listings. The winner of this game plays #1 seed Penn State at noon EST on Friday.
To view more of tBBC’s thoughts on the WBB B1G Tourney, make sure you check out our staff roundtable tomorrow!
Here are the rosters for Thursday’s game.
Northwestern University Wildcats
| No | Player | Pos. | Hgt | FG% | 3PT% | FT% | R/G | A/G | PPG |
| 10 | Nia Coffey | F | 6’1″ | 0.473 | 0.256 | 0.719 | 7.6 | 2.0 | 15.8 |
| 25 | Maggie Lyon | G | 6’1″ | 0.374 | 0.331 | 0.761 | 5.0 | 2.4 | 13.3 |
| 24 | Christen Inman | G | 5’10″ | 0.498 | 0.302 | 0.793 | 3.7 | 2.0 | 12.1 |
| 3 | Ashley Deary | G | 5’4″ | 0.333 | 0.250 | 0.649 | 3.4 | 6.8 | 6.9 |
| 5 | Alex Cohen | F | 6’5″ | 0.504 | 0.480 | 0.767 | 4.6 | 1.2 | 6.9 |
| 11 | Lauren Douglas | F | 6’2″ | 0.428 | 0.424 | 0.722 | 5.0 | 1.3 | 12.1 |
| 33 | Devon Brookshire | F | 6’2″ | 0.471 | 0.500 | 0.636 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 2.3 |
| 4 | Meghan McKeown | G | 5’9″ | 0.267 | 0.293 | 0.875 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 2.0 |
| 42 | Karly Roser | G | 5’10″ | 0.500 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.5 | 1.7 | 1.3 |
| 32 | La’Terria Taylor | G | 5’11″ | 0.214 | 0.000 | 0.625 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.5 |
| 31 | Allie Tuttle | F | 6’4″ | 0.333 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| 30 | Christen Johnson | F | 6’3″ | 0.000 | 0.000 | 1.000 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
Ohio State University Buckeyes
| Nbr | Name | Pos | Hgt | FG% | 3Pt% | FT% | R/B | A/G | PPG |
| 14 | Ameryst Alston | G | 5’9″ | 0.448 | 0.356 | .836 | 3.4 | 2.9 | 18.1 |
| 22 | Darryce Moore | C | 6’2″ | .473 | .000 | .719 | 6.0 | 1.1 | 8.3 |
| 23 | Martina Ellerbe | F | 6’2″ | 0.423 | 0.304 | .786 | 5.9 | 1.3 | 8.3 |
| 13 | Cait Craft | G | 5’8″ | 0.361 | 0.296 | .657 | 2.6 | 1.4 | 8.1 |
| 25 | Amy Scullion | G | 6’0″ | 0.288 | 0.333 | .727 | 4 | 1.0 | 3.2 |
| 31 | Raven Ferguson | G | 5’11″ | 0.359 | 0.246 | .742 | 5.3 | 2.5 | 10.7 |
| 33 | Ashley Adams | C | 6’5″ | 0.486 | .000 | .684 | 4.8 | 1.5 | 5.9 |
| 12 | Maleeka Kynard | G | 5’7″ | .296 | .343 | .741 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 4.6 |
| 21 | Lisa Blair | C | 6’6″ | 0.467 | .000 | .000 | 2.2 | 0.1 | 0.7 |
| 15 | Aleksandra Dobranic | C | 6’4″ | .250 | .000 | .500 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.6 |
