Ohio State ran into a Purdue team playing at the top of its game for times on Sunday in front of its home crowd and nearly got run off the court, before showing character and battling back to lose a tough one 81-78.
It didn’t start out so bad with the Buckeyes jumping out to an early lead when the game started, but the Boilermakers began to impose their will down low on both ends of the floor. The size and talent on the blocks clearly bothered OSU on the offensive end and contributed to a poor day shooting until midway through the second half. Purdue’s lead got all the way up to 20 points about a quarter of the way into the last 20 minutes.
E.J. Liddell, in particular, struggled to be the normal force he is early but ended up finding the range, finishing with 20 points while going 7-of-16 from the floor. As OSU began to shoot better from the outside and get some defensive stops, things began to tighten up. Improbably, Liddell hit a long 2-pointer to tie the game to complete the comeback with just 20 seconds left.
As time wound down, however, Purdue was able to get the ball into Jaden Ivey’s hands with the clock running down. He faded away from 3-point range and hit the game-winner to send Purdue off the court with a dramatic win. It’s now the second time in Ivey’s career he’s hit a walk-off jumper against Ohio State. Despite the outcome, you have to give the Buckeyes credit for making a game of it when it looked like things were sailing away from them quickly.
🚨 JADEN IVEY FOR THE WIN 🚨 @IveyJaden @BoilerBall pic.twitter.com/FLa4rRzSw3
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) January 30, 2022
Malaki Branham and Liddell led OSU with 20 points, but the Buckeyes just dug themselves too much of a hole to be able to steal one in West Lafayette. You hate to point to moral victories, but the way OSU finished had to at least give the team a boost for what it might be able to do going forward.
With the loss, Ohio State drops to 13-5 overall and 6-3 in the Big Ten, 1/2 game behind Purdue in fifth place in the conference. OSU next takes on Iowa at home on Thursday.
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