March 4, 2008

Purdue vs. Ohio State

Purdue visits Ohio State tonight at 7pm on ESPN
The fact that Purdue is 23-6 overall is remarkable, and Matt Painter deserves major consideration for national coach of the year honors. The Boilermakers have won their last two games, including a 68-43 romp over Northwestern on Saturday. While they are 16-1 at home this season, four of their nine true road games have resulted in defeat.

Purdue has been one of the nation's most surprising teams, and the enormous success can not be attributed to one star player. Purdue has gotten the job done at the defensive end, limiting opponents to 60.2 ppg.

Purdue got off to a ragged start but came back on the power of E'Twaun Moore's three pointers... they're down 1 point about halfway through the first half.

Great defense, sure, but this is ridiculous: Purdue's up 29-26 at the half.

The lead is see-sawing, 13 minutes to go and Purdue is on top 41-40.

Purdue OSU tied at 62 with 2 minutes to go. Now 1 minute to go, same score.

OSU takes the lead with free throws, they're shooting 91 percent from the line. Up 64-62.

Now Purdue is at the line with 30 seconds left: tied again at 64.

It's overtime... Purdue stole the ball as OSU drove to the basket, but didn't have time to go the other way. Purdue has lost one player to fouls, but it is the beauty of this team that they are deep and have no names.

Three's are raining down now. Purdue up by 1, 69-68 with 3.5 minutes to go.

All tied, 72-72 with 2 minutes to go. Both teams crashing the boards and each other, the refs letting them play.

OSU up by 2, 74-72 with a minute and a half to go in overtime.

Purdue struggles on offense, trying to find an opening. OSU ties them up and Purdue gets the ball on possession. Six seconds left on the shot clock, 50-some seconds to go. Purdue down 2. Purdue can't get it inbounds and waste their last timeout.

It's hard to win on the road, Purdue loses the inbounds...

OSU scores, up 4. Hummel drops a three, OSU up 1. Purdue fouls on the inbounds, OSU at the line, up 76-75 with 16 seconds left.

OSU up 3, Purdue comes down, tries a three -- no good. Purdue fouls on the rebound... OSU at the line, 9 seconds to go. Now OSU up , it looks bad.

OSU makes a horrible mistake, if you ask me, calling a time out when Purdue has none left. Purdue as the ball and needs six points in 9 seconds.

OSU wins at home, 80-77. Purdue was beaten by free throw shooting and by Butler who protected the ball well and scored 25, many of them when it counted, in overtime.

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