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Hummel's late block, defense help Purdue top Wisconsin

Jan 27, 2008 - 4:52 AM WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana (Ticker) -- Purdue once again gave Wisconsin a taste of its own medicine.

Freshman Robbie Hummel's block with a second remaining highlighted an outstanding defensive effort by the Boilermakers, who handed the No. 11 Badgers their first loss in the Big Ten Conference with a 60-56 victory on Saturday.

In limiting Wisconsin to less than 60 points for the first time in 13 games, Purdue (15-5, 6-1 Big Ten) captured its fifth straight win and improved to 11-1 at home.

Beating a team ranked in the top 11 for the first time since topping Duke on November 29, 2003, the Boilermakers also picked up a valuable win that could aid them in getting a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

"Any time you beat a team like Wisconsin, the No. 11 team in the country and that has a very good RPI, you are helping yourself get closer to your goals," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "If you want to get to the NCAA Tournament, you have to beat teams that are without question going to the NCAA Tournament. I think we've beat some teams that are NCAA Tournament teams."

Overall, the Boilermakers improved to 9-1 in their last 10 home games vs. the Badgers. A team that always holds form at its own homecourt behind a tough defensive effort, Wisconsin (16-3, 6-1) shot just 38.5 percent (20-of-53) in seeing its 10-game winning streak snapped.

"On the road you get some spirited people playing defense," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. "They're a good defensive team. Purdue showed great spirit out there, they're a tough team."

Despite its offensive woes, Wisconsin had a chance to potentially send the game into overtime despite trailing, 58-54, with 1:16 remaining.

Facing heavy pressure on the offensive end, Jason Bohannon calmly dealt with a shrinking shot clock, driving the baseline before finding Marcus Landry for a layup that made it 58-56 with 47 seconds to play.

Purdue freshman E'Twaun Moore then had a pull-up jumper roll out with 16 seconds left before Wisconsin called a timeout to set up its chance to either tie or pull ahead.

The Badgers were forced to go for the tie due to the Boilermakers' defense, but Michael Flowers' layup attempt with a second remaining was blocked by the 6-8 Hummel, who added two free throws in the final moments to seal the four-point margin.

"They were running ball screens all game, and Coach Painter told us that we had to switch on ball screens," Hummel said. "My guy ran a ball screen and I got switched onto Flowers. He's a great player, so I was just trying to contain him a little bit. He kind of got by me and cut to the basket, and I was fortunate to recover and block the shot."

"We wanted to eliminate the three and make them drive the ball," Painter added. "I thought it was a good drive and a good play. I could not see what actually happened; I could see there was a shot and a block or contact."

Hummel finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists and Moore scored 16 for the Boilermakers, who had six blocks and grabbed 12 offensive boards.

Chris Kramer, Keaton Grant and freshman JaJuan Johnson scored eight points each for Purdue, which overcame 37.5 percent (21-of-56) shooting by holding a 35-32 advantage on the boards.

Brian Butch had 20 points and 13 rebounds for Wisconsin, which trailed 52-43 with 6:20 remaining before going on an 11-5 run to close within a single possession. Butch had seven points in that span.

Trevon Hughes added 11 points for the Badgers, who finished with more turnovers (13) than assists (11).

"In a one- or two-possession game, you can look at a lot of things as the reason for not winning," Ryan said. "Maybe a couple of guys got excited early on in the game and just made some bad decisions. The season goes on; there's so many things we could have done better and that we have to improve on."