No. 6 Purdue Staves Off Furious No. 16 Ohio State Comeback, Hangs on For 81–78 Win
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Jaden Ivey had seen this moment before. Just two weeks ago in a bitter slugfest with archrival Indiana, the Purdue sophomore missed a three-pointer late and the Boilermakers lost.
Fast forward to Sunday, and the same rules applied. Ivey needed to bail out his teammates, who had blown a 20-point second half lead. This time he nailed a three-pointer from the right side to give No. 6 Purdue a thrilling—even though it shouldn't have been—victory at Mackey Arena.
With the win, Purdue moved to 7–3 in the Big Ten and 18–3 overall. Ivey, who came off the bench because he’s dealing with a hip flexor issue, finished with a team-high 21 points. Ohio State is 13-5 overall and 6-3 in the league.
“That’s a tough one for us, but give Ivey credit for making that shot,” Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said. “We just didn’t play quite like we needed to to win. We just have to continue to learn and grow. There were too many possessions where we didn’t play well enough like we needed to, especially early in the second half.”
Ivey and his teammates admitted that they botched that final possession, with a play drawn up to go inside to 7-foot-4 sophomore center Zach Edey. But Ivey said he went the wrong way, and then tried to adjust to get the ball back. His shot went in with 0.6 seconds left.
Zach Edey had 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting and made it tough on Ohio State defensively.
“He’s the best of their bigs that I’ve coached against, going back to Butler, and Matt’s had a lot of good ones” Holtmann said. ”You have to pick your poison with them, and he and Trevion (Williams) both frustrated us.
“But (Purdue guard) Sasha (Stefanovic) is so good and so important to them, that we didn't want to leave him. So it causes a lot of problems.”
Purdue opened the second half with a 13–2 run and led by 20 at the 14:35 mark in the second half. The Buckeyes, who made just 2-of-13 three-pointers in the first half, started to find their offensive a bit in the second and cut the lead to single digits with 6:36 to go on an E.J. Liddell jumper to make it 63–54.
But Purdue kept answering down the stretch and didn’t allow the Buckeyes to get any closer than eight. When they did, Purdue’s Eric Hunter Jr. hit a three-pointer to put the Boilers back up by 11 at 76–65 with 2:33 to go.
Ohio State kept plugging away though, and got the lead to six at 76–70 with 2:13 to go on a Malachi Branham layup, and then forced a Jaden Ivey travel on the Purdue end. E.J. Liddell scored on a floater with 1:06 to go and suddenly the lead was down to four. Purdue coach Matt Painter called timeout.
Jaden Ivey missed a three-pointer with the shot clock running down, but forward Mason Gillis got an offensive rebound and was fouled. He made both free throws to put Purdue ahead 78–72 with 43 seconds to go. Liddell got a quick look at another three-pointer from the corner, and hit it to pull Ohio State within three (78–75) and got a quick timeout.
Ohio State stole the inbounds pass from Purdue's Sasha Stefanovic, and the ball wound up back in Liddell's hands again at the top of the key. He nailed another one, and the game was tied with 20.8 seconds to go before Ivey had his final magical shot.
“I think Matt mentioned they didn’t run the play they intended, but we did anticipate the ball being in his hands,” Holtmann said. “E.J. made some big shots and we really executed well late. I‘m glad we fought through the final buzzer.”
Stefanovic finished with 11 points for Purdue, and Eric Hunter Jr., who started in Ivey’s usual spot, added 10. Mason Gillis had seven points and a team-high 11 rebounds.
Liddell finished with 20 points for Ohio State. Malachi Branham had 20 as well. "Liddell is a great player, one of the best in the country,'' Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "He hit a lot of big shots, even contested shots. With his skill and that body, he's going to play in the NBA for a long time.''
Purdue plays again on Wednesday night at Minnesota. Ohio State hosts Iowa on Thursday.
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Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist who's worked at some America's finest newspapers, including the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Indianapolis Star. He also owns the book publishing company, Hilltop30 Publishing Group, and he has written four books and published 16 others.