Ohio State Falls Short to No. 1 Purdue in 71-69 Loss

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Freshman center Felix Okpara stepped up after an early Zed Key injury and Big Ten Freshman of the Week Brice Sensabaugh put up 21 points, but it just wasn’t enough for the No. 24 Buckeyes to beat No. 1 Purdue on Thursday night.

Ohio State was up late but couldn’t hang on and Purdue took advantage of that to win 71-69.

“We’re not better than Ohio State, but in this game we were just one possession better,” Purdue head coach Matt Painter said following the game.

Purdue missed a 3 and Ohio State called a timeout with 0:59 remaining and the game tied at 66. Sean McNeil sinks a 3 to take the 69-66 lead with 0:40 left to play. After a quick score by 7-foot-4 Zach Edey, Purdue called a timeout down one with 0:28 remaining.

Purdue steals the ball from Justice Sueing and gets the ball coming out of a timeout and hit a go ahead 3 to take the 71-69 lead with just six seconds left in the game. Ohio State’s Sensabaugh failed to get a clean look with the ball and couldn’t make a final shot in time to tie the game, and Purdue ended up on top 71-69.

Purdue made 13 of 23 three point shots to close the game.

Sensabaugh gave the Buckeyes a spark offensively with his fourth game of the season scoring 20+ points. He finished the game with 21 points, just short of a career high 22 points. He also added five rebounds, two steals, and one assist.

Sueing had 15 points for Ohio State and four rebounds, and Purdue was led by Braden Smith with 16 points.

The Buckeyes came out on a hot start to an 12-0 scoring run to lead 18-7 just nine minutes into play despite being out two starters with Key and McNeil in the locker room with injuries. Ohio State played most of the game without Key as he did not return to the game with a shoulder sprain suffered less than five minutes into game play.

Purdue was able to stay in it with offensive rebounding but went on a scoring drought of over four minutes, missing 12 shots in a row. But Purdue went on a 9-0 run as the first half expired to tie the game 33-33 before Ohio State’s Gene Brown hit a 3 to make the halftime score 36-33 Ohio State.

Ohio State led all throughout the first half and led by as many as 12 in the first half.

Purdue’s Edey  came out of halftime with momentum. He had six points within the first three minutes of the second half and had four in the first half of the game.

Ohio State was held scoreless for over three minutes mid way through the second half as Purdue went on an 8-0 took the 48-46 lead for the first time with 14:24 remaining remaining.

Purdue struck from behind the arc and with second chance points from offensive rebounds, the Boilermakers had 39 points from 3 and 16 offensive rebounds as compared to the Buckeyes’ nine.

Purdue shot 25-of-58 good for 43% from the paint and was 13-of-31 from 3. Ohio State hit 50 percent of its field goals, 29-of-58, and was 6-of-14 from behind the arc.

Photo via Ohio State Buckeyes.