The Buckeyes could not afford to lose Wednesday's game at Northwestern, with or without suspended Kaleb Wesson. A putrid first half dug the Buckeyes into the deepest of holes and despite a bit of a bounce-back in the second half, the Buckeyes had no answer and faded late in a 68-50 loss to the Wildcats, essentially putting Ohio State's NCAA Tournament chances on life support.

This was a game that the Buckeyes were supposed to win with the Wildcats taking a 10-game losing streak into this one, one of those games being a 63-49 win in Columbus.

Chris Holtmann's team could not buy a bucket in the first half and could not buy a stop in the second half as Northwestern shot 50-percent from the floor in the second frame.

Ohio State was led by Keyshawn Woods and his 15 points while Duane Washington had 11 points and CJ Jackson had nine. The Wildcats were led by Dererk Pardon and his 20 points, 18 in the second half.

The Buckeyes had cut the game to just five points in the second half despite all the woes after a Duane Washington 3-pointer. But after that the Cats would go on a 19-8 run and Ohio State could not hit water in the ocean.

The first half was just plain dismal as Ohio State scored 17 points on 4-27 shooting from the field, 1-11 from distance and outside of Woods' eight points, nobody else scored more than three points. In fact, Ohio State scored eight first half points from the free throw line and nine points from the floor.

Kyle Young left early for the locker room after banging knees with a Northwestern player (would return in the second half), but he was one of four players who entered the game that did not score a point. Only three players scored from the floor with Woods leading the way with two makes while CJ Jackson and Justin Ahrens each had one.

Fortunately for the Buckeyes at the time, Northwestern did not pull away when it had the chance in the first half, only shooting 39-percent from the floor and just 1-7 from the floor as five players for the Wildcats picked up two first half fouls.

Over the last two games, the Buckeyes have shot a pitiful 10-50 in first half action between road games at Purdue and Northwestern.

The second half started off better for the Buckeyes as they would keep the game close, in the seven to 10-point range for much of the half before getting to their closest mark by cutting the lead to five points. There was just not enough offense as Andre Wesson, Luther Muhammad and Jaedon LeDee would all go a combine 0-16 from the floor as the Buckeyes were unable to make shots consistently.

That was also coupled with a reliance on the deep ball and 4-26 shooting from distance was not a recipe for success in this game.

Kaleb Wesson's status is unknown for Ohio State's regular season finale on Sunday at home against Wisconsin. It was announced that Wesson would be back for this season but that might mean that he won't return until the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago the following week.

The Buckeyes are likely on the wrong side of the bubble now and a win against the Badgers would potentially get them back on the right side but without Wesson and based on the last two games that the team has played without him, the odds are long as this team has played its way out of the tournament for the time being.