Micah Parrish scored 11 of his career-high 22 points in the final six minutes to lead Ohio State to a 73-70 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 Big Ten) halted a three-game slide. Devin Royal contributed 16 points and six rebounds, and Bruce Thornton added 11 points, six rebounds and five assists.
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 Boilermakers 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
