Purdue Wins Second Half By 18 (Loses Game in OT, Though, 87-78)

(Photo credit: Purdue Athletics)

Ah, the Big Ten Tournament. That necessary evil that nobody cares at all about unless they a) need to care about it, or 2) win it.

Purdue came into this game seemingly a pretty strong 4-seed according to most projections. Ohio State came in only winning one game since February 18, that being yesterday’s squeaker over the long-ago-quit Golden Gophers.

Purdue swept the season series with OSU and everybody knows it’s hard to beat a team three times in a couple of months unless you’re Rutgers kicking around Indiana. And Ohio State seemed as ready for this game as they could have been, racing out to an 18 point halftime lead at 49-31. I’m not looking it up but I took a quick glance and I can’t remember Purdue giving up near 50 in a first half in a very long time.

I talked on our last pod about Matt Painter’s improved ability to make in-game adjustments – it’s why they’re a tournament threat now and why they came within seconds of the Final Four in the most recent NCAA tourney. That was shown again today as Purdue flipped the script and damn near ran the Bucks out of the gym in the second half. It didn’t hurt that OSU hit their last FG of regulation with 5:26 to go in the second half and went almost seven minutes overall (including OT) without a bucket from the floor.

Tre had a pedestrian first half, like the rest of his team, but went HAM in the second, winding up with 26 points and 14 rebounds. Jaden Ivey had 19 points, Edey had 11 and that was it for major contributors. Gillis, Hunter and Sasha went a combined 1/11 from the floor (woof), with Sasha having zero in the score column.

Another place that really killed Purdue today was the free throw line. Even with only making nine threes, if they went better than 56% from the FT line, this is a very different afternoon.

Let’s just hope that’s out of everyone’s system. Sometimes when you know a game really doesn’t mean that much, it’s hard to get up for it. Purdue came into today having won 11 of 14 to wrap the season and so this is what it is. It’s a loss that shouldn’t mean much in the overall scheme of things. In the end, they did eventually show up and put quite the scare into OSU. We’ve seen Purdue hurt in the seeding game by dog turd BTT performances and while this looked turdlike in the first half, it turned into a fun game that further underscored the facts that Purdue is a very good team and is truly never out of a game.

Bring on Selection Sunday.

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See B-dowd’s quick reaction livecast below: