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Purdue hands Wisconsin rare home loss

Feb 10, 2008 - 5:49 AM MADISON, Wisconsin (Ticker) -- Purdue did what rarely ever happens in the Big Ten - beat Wisconsin at home.

Freshman Robbie Hummel scored 21 points as the Boilermakers jolted the eighth-ranked Badgers, 72-67, in a Big Ten Conference matchup Saturday night.

Chris Kramer added 12 points and freshman E'Twaun Moore 11 to spark Purdue (19-5, 10-1 Big Ten) to its ninth consecutive victory and a season sweep of Wisconsin.

The Boilermakers beat the Badgers (19-4, 9-2) here for the first time since 1996 and handed Wisconsin just its second conference loss (2-51) at the Kohl Center in coach Bo Ryan's seven seasons.

"This was a huge win for our program," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "It is a very deceiving stats sheet. If you look at the stats sheet, we were outrebounded and they were unbelievable from the free-throw line. To be able to get this win after getting outrebounded the way we did is a little bit unbelievable.

"Normally when you get shut down on the glass like that you don't win basketball games, but our guys were focused tonight and ready to play and I thought they made the plays necessary to win the game."

Indeed, Wisconsin held a dominating 43-21 edge on the glass and converted 30-of-33 attempts at the free-throw line.

The Boilermakers managed to offset that by shooting 52 percent (26-of-50) from the floor, including a blistering 65 percent in the opening 20 minutes. Purdue also forced 18 turnovers.

"By turning it over 18 times, we didn't get more shots and we didn't finish on some shots, so we don't shoot a very high percentage," Ryan said.

After building a 13-point lead midway through the second half, Purdue held off a determined rally by the Badgers, whose only two defeats in the last 15 games are against the Boilermakers.

A pair of free throws by Wisconsin's Jason Bohannon whittled the deficit to 68-65 with 1:22 left in the game.

After Purdue's JaJuan Johnson made a single free throw, teammate Keaton Grant made the play of the game, stealing the ball from Michael Flowers and racing in for a dunk to hike the lead to 71-65 with just under one minute left.

"To be honest, we had a difficult time guarding them so we just pressured them and got after them to knock out what they were trying to do," Painter said.

Bohannon muscled in a shot underneath to bring Wisconsin within 71-67 with 43 seconds to go, but that would be the last points scored by the Badgers.

Bohannon and Flowers scored 14 points apiece and Joe Krabbenhoft added 12 for Wisconsin, which shot an awful 33 percent (17-of-52).

"I just thought our guys just really hung tough, got on the glass, got second-chance points, hustle opportunities," Ryan said. "But defensively, in the second half, I thought other than the two early threes by Hummel, I thought we did a pretty good job. I thought they did a real good job."

Hummel finished 8-of-12 to spark the Boilermakers, who connected on 8-of-19 shots from the arc as opposed to 3-of-18 for Wisconsin.