Ohio State Escapes With 87-78 Overtime Win Against Purdue to Move On to Big Ten Tournament Semifinals

It took three tries, but Ohio State finally got the job done – barely.

Utilizing every bit of an 18-point halftime lead, the fifth-seeded Buckeyes avoided dropping Friday's quarterfinals matchup with fourth-seeded Purdue in regulation, heading to overtime tied at 72 points apiece. There, despite E.J. Liddell fouling out after two and a half minutes, six Seth Towns points, a CJ Walker fast-break layups and Duane Washington Jr. 3-pointer and free throws allowed them to escape victorious.

Ohio State ultimately came out on top, 87-78, to advance to the Big Ten tournament semifinals where it'll meet top-seeded Michigan on Saturday afternoon.

For a while, it didn't seem like the Buckeyes would have such a difficult game. But slowly, yet fairly consistently, their first-half lead unraveled. 

Purdue came out of the chutes in the second half on a 15-7 run to make it a 10-point game with 14:44 remaining. The Buckeyes proceeded to go ice cold, making one shot from the field over the ensuing seven and a half minutes. By the time Musa Jallow hit a jumper with seven minutes to go, Ohio State was up by eight. That proceeded to dwindle to two points when Trevion Williams' shot cut the Buckeyes' lead to 70-68 with 1:48 remaining. Williams then tied it up at 70-70 on a hook with 47 seconds left.

E.J. Liddell's made shot with 5:23 remaining represented Ohio State's only points until Justice Sueing hit a pair of foul shots with 23.7 seconds left. Williams backed down Zed Key to make it 72-72 with 9.4 ticks on the clock. Ohio State had the ball awaiting the final shot, but CJ Walker turned it over and the time ran out.

In essence, the second half went entirely different than the first half – where Kyle Young starred. Purdue won the second half, 41-23.

Unlike Duane Washington Jr. at times this season, Young doesn't do heat checks. For the first half of Friday's game, he had every reason to take them, though.

Three minutes after getting a bucket down low for Ohio State's first points in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament, the senior forward found himself open for 3 and drained it. Within 90 seconds, he knocked down two more triples with Purdue clearly unafraid of his looks. Young's explosion, which ended with a fourth 3-pointer that tied his single-game career-high of 18 points going through the net with four seconds remaining in the first half, extended the Buckeyes' lead to 49-31 and gave them plenty of cushion to advance past the quarterfinals.

Ohio State ultimately finished the first half with a 49-31 lead. Point totals from Young (18) and Washington (13) equaled the amount of points from the Boilermakers' entire team.

Young's day, however, ended early after another collision ended with him holding his head tight with two hands. He exited the game shortly thereafter, got looked at by the athletic training staff behind the bench area. Athletic trainer Brad Watson brought him back to the bench, where he sat for several minutes before eventually leaving the playing area to return to the locker room.

Next up: Ohio State gets a rematch with top-seeded Michigan on Saturday. The semifinal matchup will tip off at 1 p.m. on CBS.

Other Notes

• Chris Holtmann stayed with the same starting five he went back to for the second-round game against Minnesota: Duane Washington Jr., Justin Ahrens, Justice Sueing, Kyle Young, E.J. Liddell. CJ Walker again came off the bench after asking to do so several days ago.
• This was the third Ohio State-Purdue game of the 2020-21 season. The Buckeyes lost, 67-60, in West Lafayette in December, then fell, 67-65, at home in January.
• Holtmann now has a 3-3 all-time record versus Purdue.
• This was the third-ever game at Lucas Oil Stadium played by the Buckeyes. The first was Thursday's win against Minnesota, and the only other prior one came in a 67-62 win against Notre Dame in 2008.