No. 1 Purdue Basketball Edges No. 24 Ohio State 71-69 on Late 3-Pointer
COLUMBUS, Ohio — After starting 0-of-6 from the field and turning the ball over four times, Purdue freshman guard Fletcher Loyer watched the opening minutes of the second half against No. 24 Ohio State from the bench.
But when it mattered most, Loyer made huge shots for the No. 1-ranked Boilermakers, propelling the team to a 71-69 victory over the Buckeyes on Thursday night at Value City Arena on a game-winning 3-pointer in the final minute.
“It was rough, I played probably my worst half of college basketball so far,” Loyer said. “Everyone in the locker room talking to me, telling me to keep playing hard. Coming off the bench in the second half, I knew I had to focus and play hard and play defense. Focus on that, and then I happened to get a few open looks to help the game go from there.”
Loyer scored all 11 of his points after halftime and was one of four Purdue players to reach double figures. He was 4-of-6 from the field, including 3-of-4 from deep after missing his first six attempts of the game.
Freshman guard Braden Smith and junior center Zach Edey each scored 16 points to lead the team while junior guard Ethan Morton recorded a season-high 10 points. The Boilermakers finished the game with a season-best 13 made 3-pointers.
But in a matchup of two of college basketball’s most efficient offenses, Purdue stumbled out of the gates on the road. In the first four minutes of play, the team took nine shot attempts with only two finding the bottom of the net despite pulling down five offensive rebounds.
“You just want to see people respond and get back out there and compete,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “We’re fortunate, we’re very fortunate. We didn’t have a very good start to this game, and it took us a while to settle into it. We’re not better than Ohio State, in this game we were just one possession better.”
On the defensive end of the court, the Boilermakers struggled to slow down freshman forward Brice Sensabaugh, who led all scorers with 21 points. He entered the matchup averaging 15.9 points per game as the leading scorer for the Buckeyes.
Sensabaugh tallied 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the first half. He capped a 12-0 run by Ohio State with an and-one layup in transition to take an 18-7 lead over Purdue with 11:52 left to play in the opening period.
“You just can’t let him get deep and get to his sweet spot,” Painter said of Sensabaugh. “He can make those 3s and dribble in place, but we wanted to try our best to get him out of rhythm. But when he gets to his spots, he’s going to make those shots. He’s a good player.”
The Boilermakers trailed by as many as 12 points before knocking down a flurry of 3-pointers to bring the game within one possession. Despite shooting 38.2% from the field before the break, the team was 6-of-15 from beyond the arc.
Smith capped a 9-0 run of three consecutive 3-pointers to tie the game with 1:22 left before halftime. He had a team-high 12 points entering the second half, but Ohio State led 36-33.
After knocking down two 3-pointers in the first half, senior guard David Jenkins Jr. started the game for Purdue in the second in place of Loyer. He finished the game with nine points while also dishing out two assists without turning the ball over.
“We have a bunch of good shooters, and we know that,” Jenkins said. “We know it can’t rain forever, at some point we’re going to get hot. And it’s going to continue for us because we have guys that work on their game each and every day consistently. I’ve never seen guys work on their game as much as here.”
And it was Loyer who had a complete turnaround after a rough start to the game. He and Smith put in back-to-back 3-pointers to spark a 10-0 run for the Boilermakers. They went ahead 52-46 with 13:10 left to play, and the six-point lead was their largest of the night.
Sensabaugh kept the contest close for Buckeyes, responding to the deficit by scoring eight points in a 10-2 run. Neither team led by more than four points in the final 13 minutes of play.
Ohio State looked to take control late as graduate guard Sean McNeil drilled a contested 3-pointer to take a 69-66 lead with under a minute left. After a timeout, Purdue got the ball inside to Edey for an easy layup to cut the lead to one point.
With time in favor of the Buckeyes, Morton pressured the in-bounds pass and came up with a steal to set up the game-winning shot. On the final offensive possession for the Boilermakers, Edey drew two defenders in the paint and kicked out to Loyer, who buried the 3-pointer.
“We knew we wanted to go to Zach, he’s a dominant force in there,” Loyer said. “We knew they’d have to dig or double him, so we were going to be ready for those spray-out 3s, and I was just ready to shoot it.”
Purdue improves to 14-1 on the season and 3-1 in Big Ten play before a matchup with Penn State on Sunday at the Palestra in Philadelphia. The game is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET and will be televised on the Big Ten Network.
Related stories on Purdue basketball
- Purdue, Ohio State Live Blog: Purdue basketball hit the road for a matchup with No. 24 Ohio State on Thursday night at Value City Arena. Relive the action from our live blog. CLICK HERE
You can keep up to date on everything at Boilermakers Country by liking and following our Facebook page: Purdue Boilermakers on Sports Illustrated/FanNation.
You can also follow D.J. Fezler at @DJFezler on Twitter.
