Ohio State Pulls Away From Purdue For A 68-59 Win – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/29/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 29, 2000
%^$
%^$
%^$
%^$
%^$%^$Box Score|%^$Quotes|%^$Notes |%^$Interview%^$%^$
%^$%^$
%^$
%^$
%^$
%^$
By RUSTY MILLER
%^$AP Sports Writer%^$
%^$
%^$
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Ohio State coach Jim O’Brien called it a “classic Big%^$Ten game.” Others might have painted it in considerably less flattering terms.%^$
In a rough-and-tumble battle that saw players hitting the deck on a regular%^$basis, No. 8 Ohio State got six points from Michael Redd in a late 13-2 run to%^$get by Purdue 68-59 Saturday night.%^$
“Every possession was like a war,” said Scoonie Penn, who led Ohio State%^$(14-3, 5-1 Big Ten) with 19 points.%^$
With the Buckeyes on top 48-46 with 8:41 left, Redd, who finished with 14%^$points, hit a shot from the lane. After Penn hit a foul shot, Redd scored%^$inside and then hit a fastbreak layup off an alley-oop from Penn.%^$
Penn then added a layup of his own before George Reese and Ken Johnson%^$scored on rebound follows to put Ohio State ahead 61-48. The lead never dropped%^$below seven again.%^$
“We were determined to buckle down in the second half and we finally made%^$some shots,” said Redd, who had hit only 3-of-12 shots from the field before%^$making three in a row.%^$
“It’s conceivable that he could go 0-for-15 and we’d still try to run%^$something for him to win the game for us,” O’Brien said. “When you have good%^$players, you ride your good players. You can’t get away from your good players.%^$Michael and Scoonie will continue to be the focus of our offense and we’ll try%^$to get them as many shots as we can.”%^$
The win was the sixth in a row for Ohio State, which has won 10 of its last%^$11.%^$
Play was stopped for 10 minutes in the second half while the officiating%^$crew watched a video tape of the previous play.%^$
Just after Penn released a 3-pointer, a whistle away from the ball sent%^$Brian Brown to the line. Brown hit both free throws to give Ohio State a 48-42%^$lead with 9:49 left.%^$
After Purdue (13-7, 4-3) inbounded and went through a sequence of its%^$offense, Carson Cunningham was fouled. But before he could shoot the free%^$throws, the officials knelt around a courtside monitor for several minutes.%^$
A Value City Arena capacity crowd of 19,100 booed and Keady and O’Brien%^$paced the sidelines with exasperated expressions on their faces.%^$
The officials decided that Reese, not Brown, should have shot the foul shots%^$at the other end. Brown’s points were taken off the scoreboard and Reese was%^$sent to the line – 28 seconds having run off the clock since the earlier foul.%^$After Reese made both, Cunningham then took his shots before play resumed.%^$
“I’ll have to see that on tape to really be sure,” Purdue coach Gene Keady%^$said. “A lot of times I think, `That was a really bad call.’ Probably about 80%^$percent of the time that I’ve thought that over the course of my 42 years in%^$coaching, the referee was right. I’m not going to say he was wrong on that%^$thing, but it was weird.”%^$
“It was just a wash, with a different shooter,” O’Brien said.%^$
Johnson, the nation’s leading shot blocker, scored 10 points and had 10%^$rebounds to go with seven blocks. Reese added 10 points.%^$
Cunningham matched his season high with 19 points, with Brian Cardinal and%^$Greg McQuay each scoring 11. Cardinal also had 11 rebounds.%^$
“We just could not get over the hump,” Keady said.%^$
Jaraan Cornell, Purdue’s leading scorer with 15.1 points a game, made his%^$only field goal with 1:25 left and finished with two points.%^$
A year ago, Ohio State beat the Boilermakers 72-43 – their most lopsided%^$victory in the series in 38 years. The latest meeting in Columbus was%^$considerably different.%^$
“We beat a good team,” Redd said. “I don’t want anyone to listen to other%^$people’s expectations. We just have to play the best that we can.”%^$
Purdue shot 38.2 percent from the field, marking the fifth game in a row an%^$Ohio State opponent has failed to top 40 percent.%^$
