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Turner, Ohio State shoot down Purdue

Feb 4, 2009 - 5:52 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- While it normally has been tough for Purdue to win at Columbus, the shooting of Evan Turner and Ohio State made it next to impossible on Tuesday.

Turner scored six of his 26 points in overtime as Ohio State extended No. 13 Purdue's struggles here with an 80-72 victory.

Freshman William Buford had 22 points and classmate B.J. Mullens added 17 and eight rebounds for the Buckeyes (16-5, 6-4 Big 12), who used a strong shooting effort to hand the Boilermakers their ninth straight loss in Columbus.

"This is definitely a big win for us against a top-15 team and getting the win at home," Mullens said. "We just have to put this one behind us."

It does not get any easier for Ohio State, which will host No. 19 Minnesota on Saturday.

Ohio State finished 60 percent (32-of-53) from the field, including 9-of-15 by Turner. Prior to the battle with the Buckeyes, Purdue had not allowed a team to shoot better than 43.1 percent this season, and ranked first in the nation in field-goal percentage defense at 36 percent.

Turner also went 8-of-14 on free throws, grabbed 12 rebounds and handed out seven assists.

"You can't allow Evan Turner to get to the basket and you can't let Evan Turner get to the free throw line 14 times," Purdue coach Matt Painter said.

Despite their strong shooting, the Buckeyes could not finish off the Boilermakers at the end of regulation.

Holding a 64-59 lead with 1:50 left after Turner completed a layup, Ohio State saw Purdue reel off five straight points behind a 3-pointer by Keaton Grant and a steal and dunk by Chris Kramer.

Looking to pull back ahead with 53 seconds left, the Buckeyes worked the ball around before getting it in the hands of Turner on the right wing. The sophomore swingman drove to the basket but had the ball slip out of bounds with 27 ticks remaining.

Purdue freshman Lewis Jackson then lost his balance on a drive into the lane, tossing up a wild shot that banged hard off the backboard. Turner picked up the ball but his heave from just before half-court fell wide of the rim.

Still, Turner felt confident about overtime.

"We were just ready for war," Turner said. "We knew that five more minutes, just to pull out a victory, we were ready and prepared to go until tomorrow night if we had to."

The score was still tied at 66-66 when Turner converted two free throws 2:23 into the overtime, starting a decisive 12-2 run in which he scored all of his points in the extra session.

Turner hit a jumper with 1:10 left in overtime and added two more foul shots for a 76-68 lead with 32 seconds left.

Mullens put a cap on the win when he dunked on the fast break on a pass off the backboard from Jon Diebler with 20 seconds to play.

Ohio State ended up making 5-of-7 shots in overtime to cap its great effort.

JaJuan Johnson scored a career-high 30 points for Purdue (17-5, 6-3), which had a six-game winning streak snapped.

Grant had 14 points for the Boilermakers, who were forced to play without top big man Robbie Hummel due to back spasms.

Hummel's absence hurt Purdue, which was outrebounded by a 36-19 margin.

"Wow, is that a misprint?" Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. "No, I don't know ... we talked about it and we felt like if we could win the rebounding war that we would have a great chance to win the game. I thought our guys did a pretty decent job of that."