EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) -- The Northwestern fans razzed Scoonie Penn all night, talking trash, making fun of his name and trying to throw him off his game.

Penn just took it with a smile. The scoreboard at the end of the game was all the retort he needed.

Penn scored nine of his 15 points in the second half to revive a sluggish Ohio State (No. 18 ESPN/USA Today, No. 17 AP), and the Buckeyes coasted for a 58-44 victory over Northwestern on Saturday night.

"Scoonie made a bundle of good plays," Ohio State coach Jim O'Brien said. "As is typically the case, he's the guy that ignites a lot of the things that we do when we're doing good things."

Brian Brown had a perfect night, scoring 14 points on 4-of-4 shooting. He also was 2-of-2 from the free-throw line. Ken Johnson added 12 for the Buckeyes (11-3, 3-1 Big Ten), who won for the seventh time in eight games.

The game wasn't nearly as close as the final score indicated. The Buckeyes didn't score a basket in the last 4:45 while Northwestern (4-11, 0-3) finished with a 10-0 run. It was the Wildcats' sixth straight loss.

"They're just a better team than we are right now," Northwestern coach Kevin O'Neill said. "They're more experienced and they got off to a better start."

The Buckeyes didn't play their best game of the season, shooting only 44 percent (21-of-48) and turning the ball over 13 times. Michael Redd, who came into the game averaging 15.6 points, was held to 10.

But Ohio State's roster is deep enough to overcome most lapses, especially against a Northwestern team of freshmen and sophomores.

"You've got to give those guys some credit, they made some shots," Penn said. "But they're young guys. We knew we'd eventually separate ourselves from them."

When they did, it was Penn who led the way. After the Wildcats pared what had been a 16-point lead to 28-20 at halftime, Penn opened the second half with back-to-back 3-pointers. Brown added another, and Ohio State was back up 34-23 with 18:08 left.

Ben Johnson scored five points to get the Wildcats to 37-29 with 15:14 left, but Brown made two free throws, Penn converted on a three-point play and Northwestern never got within single digits again.

"He's a great leader," said Ben Johnson, who led Northwestern with 18 points. "When things went down, he told guys what to do and he ran the show."

Ran it? He took it over, O'Neill said.

"He decided who was going to get what shot, when they were going to get it and when he was going to get his," O'Neill said. "That's what you expect a veteran point guard to do."

The Buckeyes started strong, slapping away Wildcats passes and wrestling the ball away as they took a quick 14-0 lead. The game was so lopsided, Ken Johnson had seven points and Brown five before Northwestern could get a basket.

With five turnovers in the first four minutes, the Wildcats were so overmatched it looked like they might go the entire first half without a basket.

"It was defense, we played great defense," Penn said. "We did a great job at the beginning and we set the tone."

Jason Burke finally broke Northwestern's drought, hitting a driving layup with 15:15 left to make it 14-2.

Ohio State kept pounding away at the Wildcats, using their quickness, size and defense to pull away. Penn hit a pull-up jumper from about eight feet out, Ken Johnson stole the ball and took it in for a layup and Reese hit a layup as Ohio State took a 20-4 lead with 10:12 left.

But then Ohio State got stale, going more than two minutes without a basket three times in the last nine minutes of the half. The Wildcats, meanwhile, went on a 3-point flurry. Winston Blake, Collier Drayton, Ben Johnson and David Newman all hit 3s, and Slobodan Ocokoljic was called for goaltending as Northwestern pared the lead to 28-20 at halftime.

"We can't slack off. When some guys go out, we got a little disorganized," Redd said. "We've got to correct that, and we did."