Purdue drops Ohio State for third straight win over Top 25 team
By JAMES HOWELL, Jr.
ISL Purdue Writer
Have the Boilermakers finally crawled out of the hole they placed themselves in during the non-conference season when they lost to teams such as Gardner-Webb and North Florida at home?
It appears that if they haven’t, then they are well on their way to escaping.
On Wednesday night, the Boilermakers clashed with yet another ranked team in the Ohio State Buckeyes. Once again, the Boilermakers hosted the meeting and once again, they walked away victorious, 60-58.
With the home wins over Iowa, Indiana and Ohio State, this is the first time since 1978-79 an unranked Boilermakers team has taken down three straight Top 25 teams. Coach Matt Painter wasn’t worried about the details, he was just happy to get the win after losing six straight to the Buckeyes.
“It was a big game for us,” Painter said. “Ohio State has really had our number.”
Before tip-off, it was learned that the Buckeyes second leading scorer, Marc Loving, would miss the game as he had been left at home in Columbus due to a suspension.
The Buckeyes struggled without him as they leaned almost entirely on their star and future NBA Lottery pick D’Angelo Russell. Russell did what he could but at this point in the season, one player is no match for a fired up Boilermakers team.
Russell finished the game with 20 points on 7-for-18 shooting.
Raphael Davis put together another impressive performance with 20 points on just 10 shots to help the Boilermakers clinch their third straight win over a ranked team.
“I think we have really grown up,” he said. ”Beating three Top 25 teams is really good, but we can get better in a lot of areas.”
A.J. Hammons was a force without scoring much. It was his lucky day with triple sevens on the stat sheet. Seven points, seven rebounds and seven blocks.
Moving forward, Purdue will travel to Minnesota on Saturday night. A win against a strong Golden Gophers team on the road would almost certainly propel the Boilermakers into many NCAA brackets.
