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Purdue returns home to rout Ohio State

Mar 1, 2009 - 3:20 AM WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana (Ticker) -- Saturday afternoon was a welcome return home for Purdue. The result was no coincidence.

The 16th-ranked Boilermakers continued their home dominance, exploding in the second half to come away with a 75-50 rout of Ohio State.

While the victory was its seventh straight on its home floor, Purdue's performance on the road has been a different story - throwing a kink into its Big Ten title hopes. The Boilermakers have dropped three of their last four contests away from home, including Thursday's setback to Michigan.

"For us, I don't think the quick turnaround was a negative," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "Michigan played well the other night. We came out today and played well."

Two days later, Purdue (22-7, 11-5 Big Ten) responded nicely - in the second half, at least. The Boilermakers overcame a sluggish first half to seize control after the break.

"I thought we did a good job defending. We didn't want to let them get started," Painter said. "It's important against a team like Ohio State to stop their main guns. You have to keep them off the line and not allow them to get in any sort of rhythm."

The Buckeyes pulled to within two early in the second half thanks to back-to-back buckets from B.J. Mullens.

That was just the catalyst Purdue needed. The team responded with a 17-2 run, sparked by Robbie Hummel's dunk and Lewis Jackson's layup just nine seconds later.

"As a team, you have to learn to play through runs without taking timeouts," Painter said. "For us, we just have to continue defending and continue to get the ball inside."

E'Twaun Moore followed a minute later with a 3-point bucket and the rout was on. After Evan Turner drained a pair of free throws to get the Buckeyes back on the board, Keaton Grant had the answer for Purdue, connecting from the arc to extend the lead back into double digits.

"We did not play well today. Purdue had a lot to do with that," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. "We didn't have the mindset we needed to come in here and get a victory today. We cut it from five to two there at the end of the half and in the second half, Purdue kept playing and we didn't."

Moore, Grant and Hummel each knocked down 3-pointers later in the half to push it to 57-38. Five Boilermakers reached double figures in scoring, led by Hummel's 17 points. Nemanja Calasan added 14 on 6-of-8 shooting and JaJuan Johnson chipped in 12.

Ohio State (18-9, 8-8) has now dropped four of its last five contests. Jon Diebler had a particularly miserable performance in this one, going 2-of-12 from the floor - including 2-of-10 from the arc. He finished with six points - or about half his season average.

"I thought he had some clean looks and he took them," Matta said. "Today, they just didn't go down. He finally got going late, it was just too late."

Turner led the Buckeyes with 14 points.