Micah Parrish scored 11 of his career-high 22 points in the final six minutes to lead Ohio State to a 73-70 Big Ten upset of No. 11 Purdue on Tuesday night in West Lafayette, Ind.
The Buckeyes trailed by 16 points in the waning moments of the first half but produced 10-0 and 15-0 runs in the second half to snap Purdue’s 26-game home winning streak.
Parrish drilled a career-high six 3-pointers on just eight attempts as Ohio State (11-8, 3-5) erased a three-game slide. Devin Royal contributed 16 points and six rebounds and Bruce Thornton added 11 points.
Trey Kaufman-Renn paced Purdue (15-5, 7-2) with a career-high-tying 26 points while Fletcher Loyer posted 15 points. Braden Smith battled early foul trouble and finished with 12 points and eight assists, but he hit just 3 of-14 field-goal attempts as the Boilmakers had their seven-game winning streak halted.
Purdue broke out to an early lead as Smith and Kaufman-Renn kept working pick-and-rolls for baskets. Kaufman-Renn scored eight points — six on feeds from Smith — to build a 12-5 lead with 14:48 left in the half. But Smith picked up his second foul at the 13:06 mark and sat out most of the rest of the half.
C.J. Cox, Smith’s replacement at the point, fueled an 11-2 run with a conventional three-point play, a pullup at the free-throw line and a back cut for a layup. That pushed Purdue’s lead to 25-11 with eight minutes to go.
Parrish buried a 3-pointer and a contested 17-footer to pull the Buckeyes within 33-23 with 2:40 remaining, but he picked up his third foul on Purdue’s ensuing possession and sat the rest of the half.
Thornton hit a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer to cut Purdue’s lead to 41-28, then cashed a 3-pointer and two free throws on Ohio State’s first two possessions of the second half to highlight a 10-0 run.
When Ques Glover buried a step-back jumper at the 16:13 mark, the Buckeyes pulled within 43-39 — the closest they had been since it was 8-5. When Parrish followed up with back-to-back 3-pointers, Ohio State earned its first lead at 45-43 and forced Purdue coach Matt Painter to call a timeout with 14:07 to play.
Purdue answered Ohio State’s 10-0 run with a 9-0 spree to claim a 59-53 lead with 7:22 to go, but Parrish sank three 3-pointers and a driving layup to give the Buckeyes 15 straight points and a 68-59 edge with 2:39 left.
Purdue answered with eight straight points — six by Kaufman-Renn — to pull within one point with a minute to play, but John Mobley Jr. canned a 20-footer from the corner and Royal hit three free throws to secure the upset.
–Field Level Media
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