BTN.com staff, March 6, 2014

Ohio State eliminated Northwestern 86-77 in the opening game of the 2014 Big Ten Women's basketball Tournament. Ameryst Alston scored a game-high 30 points for the Buckeyes, who advance to play Penn State on Friday. Watch all Thursday games live on BTN/BTN2Go and look at back at this games stats with the GameTracker.

Darryce Moore and Martina Ellerbe had double-doubles as eighth-seeded Ohio State pulled away in the closing minutes. Alston, who finished one point shy of matching her career-high, broke a 73-73 tie with a layup with 1:53 to play. Ellerbe followed with a steal that was turned into her 3-pointer at the 1:24 mark and, after a Northwestern miss, Alston made two free throws for an 80-72 lead with 51 seconds remaining.

Ellerbe finished with 16 points and a career-high 13 rebounds for the Buckeyes (16-17), who face top-seeded and 11th-ranked Penn State (22-6) on Friday. Moore added 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Maggie Lyon led Northwestern (15-15) with 25 points, Nia Coffey had 19 with 11 rebounds, Lauren Douglas had 15 points.

Thursday's games (all times ET)
Game 1: No. 8 Ohio State 86, No. 9 Northwestern 77 (noon on BTN/BTN2Go)
Game 2: No. 5 Iowa vs. No. 12 Illinois (about 25 minutes after Game 1 on BTN/BTN2Go)
Game 3: No. 7 Michigan vs. No. 10 Indiana (6:30 p.m. on BTN/BTN2Go)
Game 4: No. 6 Minnesota vs. No. 11 Wisconsin (about 25 minutes after Game 3, BTN/BTN2Go)

The full schedule is here. Catch up on all the action on our Big Ten scoreboard and get video, stats and recaps in this post.

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