No. 11 Purdue 76, No. 2 Ohio State 63
By Zach Langdon
The Boiling Point: Purdue protected its home court, getting an important upset win over Ohio State. The unconscious E’Twaun Moore was the reason why.
THE STORY: Feeding off the electric atmosphere in Mackey Arena, Purdue handed the second-ranked Buckeyes their second loss of the season, 76-63. The Boilers (22-5, 11-3 Big Ten), who led by at least three points during the entire second half, controlled the pace most of the afternoon. But they needed a spectacular effort from senior E’Twaun Moore to put Ohio State (25-2, 12-2) away. Moore scored a career-high 38 points, hitting 7 of his 10 3-point attempts.
TURNING POINT: Take your pick from a number of huge shots by E’Twaun Moore. His step-back 3-pointer with 5:46 left put Purdue up 58-51 (a bucket that came just after he prevented an over-and-back with an athletic save at halfcourt). A possession earlier, his short turnaround jumper ended a Boiler field goal drought that lasted nearly five minutes.
GAME BALL: E’Twaun Moore should probably get five game balls. He had 33 of his 38 during the game’s final 24 minutes. And he became the fifth player in Purdue history to surpass 2,000 career points.
SPORTSCENTER MOMENT: Somehow, E’Twaun Moore hung in the air long enough to avoid David Lightly before scooping in a wild layup that gave Purdue a 29-28 lead and ignited the crowd with 3:23 left before half. … Also, JaJuan Johnson’s backward dunk in the final moments was beautiful.
WHAT IT MEANS: Purdue’s not out of the Big Ten regular season title race yet, though it still needs another Ohio State loss (the Buckeyes finish with three of their final four at home). Sunday’s win does improve the Boilers’ NCAA tournament resume considerably, perhaps putting Purdue in contention for a No. 2 seed.
GETTING CRITICAL: Where was JaJuan Johnson after halftime? The Boilers were very fortunate midway through the second half that Ohio State was completely out of sync offensively (some credit goes to the Purdue defense for that). But it would have been nice to see Purdue’s player-of-the-year candidate take over and seal that win. Johnson settled for a couple long jumpers, though, and the Buckeyes stayed within striking distance until the end.
ODDS AND EDDS: Aaron Craft is Chris Kramer 2.0. Now it’s clear why opposing fans had so much disdain for Purdue’s hard-nosed floor leader. … A couple times Craft and Lewis Jackson jostled mid-air for errant passes. The CBS crew didn’t give Jackson any credit for going up and snatching the basketball with Craft all over him, but the tiny Boiler point guard won every battle. … We made it all the way to the 1:48 mark in the second half before the CBS cut away to a shot of a well-dressed Robbie Hummel. In case you hadn’t heard, he’s injured and won’t play this year. … Kudos to the Paint Crew. Mackey Arena was rocking all game long Sunday. No court rush? Probably a good call. … Pretty sure CBS will televise a game next Saturday between San Diego State and BYU. Could be wrong. There were only about 15 promos.