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Moore's 31 powers Purdue over Northwestern

Dec 31, 2010 - 8:08 PM West Lafayette, IN (Sports Network) - E'Twaun Moore led all scorers with 31 points and grabbed seven rebounds, as 12th-ranked Purdue earned an 82-69 win over Northwestern in Big Ten action at Mackey Arena.

JaJuan Johnson finished with 19 points and nine boards, while Ryne Smith netted 13 points for Purdue (13-1, 2-0 Big Ten), which opened its Big Ten schedule with a convincing 80-57 victory over Michigan on Tuesday and have now won eight straight.

Michael Thompson ended with a team-best 18 points and Luka Mirkovic chipped in with 16 for Northwestern (9-2, 0-1), which has dropped two of its last three. JerShon Cobb and John Shurna donated 12 and 11 points, respectively, in defeat.

In the second half, Smith's two free throws with 8:04 to play put the Boilermakers ahead by a seemingly comfortable double-digit margin, 66-54, but Thompson made a jumper and a three sandwiched around Mike Capocci's make to cut the Wildcats' deficit to five with 6:31 left.

Smith hit from three-point range near the four-minute mark to give Purdue a nine-point lead at 71-62, then made a another triple with 2:15 to play to give the Boilermakers an 11-point cushion.

Northwestern never threatened the outcome in the final minutes.

Back-to-back three-pointers by Moore gave Purdue a 16-10 lead in the early going.

The Boilermakers were ahead 28-20 with 8:13 left in the opening half before Davide Curletti and Shurna each hit from beyond the arc as part of an 8-2 run to get Northwestern within two at 30-28 with 5:47 to play.

However, Purdue closed the first half with nine straight points and took a 42-30 advantage into the locker room.

Game Notes

Purdue owns a commanding 120-43 lead in the all-time series with Northwestern, and the Boilermakers have won seven of the last nine meetings...Purdue shot 46.3 percent from the field and made nine three-pointers, seven from Moore...Northwestern made 45.6 percent of its shots and 8-of-17 from beyond the arc.