OSU Drops First Home Game of the Season

What a great matchup Wednesday night in Columbus, Ohio…

The 12 th ranked Ohio State Buckeyes welcomed the 4 th ranked Purdue Boilermakers into Value City Arena, a place where the Buckeyes have not lost this season.

Both teams came into the game playing their best ball of the season with Ohio State winning nine straight Big Ten games and Purdue notching seven consecutive wins overall.

It was only fitting that the game came down to the final shot of the game.

Jon Diebler rose up for that final shot to tie the game, but his last-second 3-pointer clanked off the back of the rim as the Buckeyes fell 70-67.

Four out of the five starters for the Buckeyes played the entire game.

Evan Turner led OSU with 29 points while William Buford contributed 11 points and Diebler added 10 points.

JaJuan Johnson carried the Boilermakers hitting big shot after big shot on his way to 24 points.

Johnson scored the first basket of the game as Purdue jumped out of the gates early by scoring the first seven points of the ballgame. This trend would continue throughout the first half as the Boilermakers dominated at took the wind out of the home crowd.

The lead ballooned to as many as 15 points, and just like their first meeting of the season, Purdue lead by double digits at the half.

In that first meeting, Purdue jumped out to a big lead on an offensive clinic put on by Robbie Hummel, and Ohio State came back to win on the shoulders of Evan Turner. It looked like Turner was about to do the same on Wednesday.

Turner had 11 of Ohio State's first 16 points in the second half as the Buckeyes rode their star to get back into the game. With a three-point play and a triple from downtown, Turner cut the lead to 43-37 with just over 14 minutes remaining

Purdue led by five inside of a minute and a half remaining, and caught a break as the Boilermakers missed the front end of a one-in-one. Turner capitalized on the next possession to make it a one-possession game.

After Purdue missed a layup with 16 seconds left, Ohio State had the ball for the final possession of the game with a chance to tie the game.

A scramble for the ball as the seconds ticked down landed in Diebler’s hands where he got a good look at the top of the key for the final shot.

With the loss, Ohio State (20-7, 10-4) gets leapfrogged by Purdue (22-3, 10-3) for second place in the conference standings.

Ohio State can get themselves right back atop the standings as they face the first place Michigan State Spartans on the road this coming Sunday afternoon.

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