The Ohio State Buckeyes are the top team in the nation and the top seed in the Big Ten Tournament, but they're getting all they can handle from the Nortwestern Wildcats thus far. As the teams have gone into the locker room at halftime, the Buckeyes have a five-point lead, 28-23.
Aaron Craft leads the Buckeyes with nine points through the first 20 minutes of play, and Jared Sullinger has already gathered 11 rebounds. David Lighty is the Buckeyes' second-leading scorer with six. For Northwestern, John Shurna leads all scorers in this one thus far with ten.
Northwestern had a lead at 23-19 with three minutes left to play in the half, but the Buckeyes closed things out on a 9-0 run to give them their current cushion.
The winner of this game will play the winner of the second game of the morning session, which will be contested by the Michigan Wolverines and the Illinois Fighting Illini. That game will start approximately 25 minutes after the conclusion of this game.