Turner, Buckeyes outduel Hummel and the Boilermakers

Two of the Big Ten’s top players were on center stage at Mackey Arena on Tuesday night as Ohio State’s Evan Turner and the Buckeyes faced Robbie Hummel and the Purdue Boilermakers.

Needless to say, both players did not disappoint…

Turner poured in a career-high 32 points, including a team-high nine rebounds, in leading the Buckeyes to a 70-66 come-from-behind victory on the road. Hummel also bucketed a career-high tallying 35 points and a team-high 10 rebounds on his way to school record tying eight 3-pointers.

The game was a tale of two halves for both the teams and their respective stars with Hummel dominating the first half and Turner taking over in the second.

A sloppy start by both squads saw multiple turnovers from each side. The majority of Ohio State’s early turnovers were mostly self-inflicted while Purdue’s were caused by a stingy Buckeye zone defense.

Purdue’s offense, often predicated on flow and movement, was stagnate due to the zone and allowed the Buckeyes to jump out to an 18-13 lead halfway through the first half.

After a Purdue timeout, the Boilermakers would go on to close the first half by outscoring Ohio State 28-11 resulting in a 41-29 lead at the half. The zone defense had been cracked by the outside shooting clinic put on by Hummel.

During a four minute and 28 second stretch in the half, Hummel scored 18 straight Boilermaker points and finished with 29 first half points on 8-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc.

Buckeyes Head Coach Thad Matta made a key halftime adjustment by ditching the zone and going to a full court man-to-man press.

The Buckeyes trailed by as many as 13 points in the second half, but behind their full court pressure made a 7-0 run to cut the lead down to six at 58-52 with less than five minutes remaining.

Momentum seemed to be on the Buckeyes side as Hummel left the game briefly with a dislocated finger, and after a Turner 3-pointer from the top of the key, the game was all knotted up at 62.

Ohio State took the lead for good with 1:10 to go as Turner fought inside for a rebound and drew a whistle to head to the line where he calmly knocked down both free-throws. The Buckeyes would go on to hit their last eight free-throws on their way to their first road victory of the season.

The defensive pressure, holding Hummel to just six second half points, and an inspired second half performance by Turner, who scored 23 of the Buckeyes 41 second half points, led Ohio State to a much needed conference victory.

Having played four out of their first five conference games on the road, the Buckeyes (12-5, 2-3) will look to even up their Big Ten record as they host the Wisconsin Badgers this Saturday night.

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