COLUMBUS, Ohio — E.J. Liddell was home. And he needed a spark.

In Ohio State’s return to Big Ten play, the junior forward could not find anything in terms of offense. The rest of his game was there: the rebounds, the blocks, the turnovers, to the chagrin of the coaching staff. But there wasn’t that spark, that light that lit the rest of the Ohio State roster, hitting five of his last 26 attempts from the field.

Where Liddell goes, Ohio State goes.

Liddell’s first look against Northwestern was a familiar one: a one-on-one near the hoop, getting the attention of another Wildcats defender in a double-team. He shook both off, going up with a floater.

One-for-one.

But then Liddell found his home from deep. Just to the right of the 3-point line, the junior forward found his groove. One turned into two, two into three, three into four, four into five, falling like nothing ever went wrong for him offensively.

Liddell was that spark again, and Ohio State (10-3) was on fire, returning home and returning to its dominant ways inside conference play, beating Northwestern (8-5), 95-87, Sunday evening.

Liddell logged a career-high 34 points, making a career-high 12 field goals on 20 attempts, adding two assists, four rebounds and five blocks, eclipsing 100 for his career.

That first-half offensive onslaught by Liddell fed into the rest of the roster. Freshman guard Malaki Branham hit four of his first five attempts from the field and four free throws for 13 points, redshirt senior guard Cedric Russell came off the bench with two 3s, sophomore forward Zed Key, coming off the bench for the first time this season, was a perfect 2-2 from the field in the first 20 minutes.

While Northwestern never really went away, led by a combination of center Ryan Young, guard Boo Buie and guard Chase Audige, Ohio State held onto a 12-point lead as it left for halftime.

Early in the second half, it was Northwestern that found a bit of that offense.

The Wildcats made three of its first five attempts from the field to start, adding three forced turnovers in Ohio State’s first eight possessions, cutting the Buckeyes’ lead down to single digits.

Sophomore guard Ty Berry kept Northwestern close, hitting two 3s in the first five minutes of the second half, finishing with 23 points, including 14 in the final 20 minutes.

In response, Ohio State went cold from deep, missing each of its first three 3-point attempts until Cedric Russell, who hit both of his attempts in the first half off the bench, hit one halfway through the second half.

With less than five minutes to go, Northwestern cut its deficit to six after a mini 6-0 run, but Ohio State was able to answer with nine makes from the free-throw line by redshirt senior guard Jamari Wheeler, Branham and Liddell. Ohio State finished X-X from the line against the Wildcats, making its first 20 in a row.

It was one of those games for Ohio State from deep, making 11-of-25 from 3, with three different players hitting multiple 3-pointers for the Buckeyes

Branham proved to be a valuable secondary scorer for the Buckeyes, finishing as Ohio State's only other 20-point scorer with 22 points on 5-8 shooting, along with 13 free throws on 14 attempts.

Senior forward Justin Ahrens struggled from deep, missing all five attempts from the field — all 3s.

Ohio State was without its head coach Sunday against Northwestern with both Chris Holtmann and assistant coach Ryan Pedon out in health and safety protocols. Jake Diebler served as the acting head coach for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State will travel to Wisconsin Thursday to take on the Badgers at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.