Ohio State Stun Purdue 73 to 69

Buckeyes Stun Purdue 73 to 69

by: Steven Stremming, Excel H Sports/USBWA

Ohio State made a shocking coaching change last week when they fired Chris Holtmann and replaced him with Jake Diebler.

Diebler’s task, take care of the team and get ready for Excel H Sports #1 ranked Purdue Boilermakers.

Ohio State came into the B1G Ten contest losing nine of their last nine games while the Boilers were coming off a nine-game winning streak.

Ohio State played with tremendous energy from start to finish and held a five-point halftime lead at 35 to 30.

Bruce Thornton, Sophomore guard played with composure throughout the contest and would lead the Buckeyes with 22 points while Jamison Battle, would score 17 points after the break and would end up with 19 points.

Late in the game the Boilers made their run with Lance Jones hitting a three-pointer to tie the contest at 55 apiece.

Battle would counter with a three and then with time expiring connected on two free throws. Battle is shooting 95% percent from the line for the year.

Thornton sealed the win with free throws to send the Boilers home with a loss.

While Purdue outrebounded the Buckeyes 36 to 23, Purdue turned the ball over 14 times resulting in 22 points for the Buckeyes.

Purdue was deadly from the line as they hit on all twenty attempts at the charity stripe but to many inopportune defensive lapses.

Ohio State tallied nine steals including the defensive effort of Zed Key.

Ohio State was led by Thornton’s 22 and aided by Battle’s 19. They were the only Buckeyes in double figures, but Key added nine, Bonner seven, and Royal’s five.

Purdue was led by Zach Edey’s 22 points, and 13 rebounds and three blocks.

Edey surpassed Joe Barry Carroll’s all-time rebounding record during the contest.

Aiding Edey were Lance Jones’ 13 points on eleven shots, Braden Smith added 12 along with five rebounds and a team leading seven assists.

Trey Kaufman-Renn added twelve points.

(The following is credit sourced to Purdue University Athletics)

• Purdue fell to 23-3 overall and 12-3 in the Big Ten Conference with a 73-69 loss at Ohio State on Sunday afternoon in Columbus. The loss snapped a nine-game winning streak for the Boilermakers.
• The loss snapped a four-game winning streak against Ohio State and ended a four-game road winning streak for the Boilermakers.
• Purdue is 4-3 on the road against unranked teams. Against everyone else and at all other sites, Purdue is 19-0.
• Purdue saw an 11-game win streak when ranked No. 2 in the country end.
• In Purdue’s three losses, Purdue has had 45 turnovers compared to opponents’ 18 turnovers. The Boilermakers own a -9.00 in turnover margin in those three games. Opponents are outscoring Purdue by 42 points in points off turnovers in those three games, including 22 to 5 by Ohio State.
• Purdue is 5-3 when it has at least 14 turnovers in a game. When having 13 or fewer turnovers, Purdue is 18-0.
• Opponents are also 31-of-64 (.484) from 3-point range in the three setbacks. Purdue is just 21-of-61 (.344) from deep in its three losses.
• Purdue went 20-of-20 from the free throw line, the third-most makes without a miss in school history, and the most since 2001 (25-of-25 vs. Michigan; Feb. 24, 2001).
• Purdue is now shooting 79.1 percent from the free throw line on the road, but just 69.2 percent in Mackey Arena.
• Braden Smith moved into fifth place on Purdue’s single-season assists chart with 187 assists.
• Zach Edey moved past E’Twaun Moore into third place on Purdue’s career scoring list with 2,137 points, after tallying 22 points, 13 rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots.
• Edey became Purdue’s all-time leader in career rebounds with 1,155, passing Joe Barry Carroll (1,148). Edey also moved into fourth place on the Big Ten’s all-time rebounds list (1,155).
• Edey now has 604 points, 309 rebounds, 59 blocked shots and 48 assists on the season, becoming one of three players in school history with at least two 600-point, 300-rebound seasons (Joe Barry Carroll, Terry Dischinger).
• Edey’s 10 straight double-doubles are tied with himself for the third-longest streak in school history (12 – Terry Dischinger; 11 – Dave Schellhase; 10 – Zach Edey; 10 – Zach Edey). Over his last 10 games, Edey is averaging 25.5 points, 14.3 rebounds, 2.3 blocks and 2.1 assists per game.