PDF: Purdue-Ohio State statistics

Analysis ($): Stat Blast | 3-2-1 | Wrap Video

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A month ago at this time, playing on the road, in the face of a home team making every shot it puts in the air, Purdue probably wilts, like it did at Florida State, like it did at Texas.

But on Wednesday night, the Boilermakers may have served up a glowing illustration of their growth, winning at Ohio State 79-67, a win that one point looked like it may come easily, then turned out anything but.

Earlier this season, this young — and new — Purdue team endured some basketball hardships in non-conference play, part of the reason its overtime win at Wisconsin seemed so cathartic at the moment.

This, this was more of that feeling, the Boilermakers winning out when it mattered most against a seemingly desperate Buckeye team in the midst of an outlier sort of shooting game.

“You can see we’re more used to that, playing in a hostile environment,” senior Grady Eifert said. “With such a young group, when you lose four seniors, going into that hostile environment might be a little eye-opening at first.

“We stress every day in practice being able to go on the road and get a win. That’s the hardest thing to do in this conference and something we need to keep striving to do.”

Had you told Purdue prior to the game that it would get Buckeye go-to guy Kaleb Wesson in debilitating foul trouble and hold him to just six points and one field goal in 16 minutes, it probably would have figured it would have rolled to a one-sided win.

It looked for a time like the Boilermakers might, after a 22-1 first half run turned the game on its side, decidedly in the visitors’ favor.

But it’s funny how things work out sometimes.

As happy as Purdue was to send Kaleb Wesson to the bench, the loss of its best player actually helped Ohio State, forcing the Buckeyes to go small.

That small lineup gave Purdue fits, raining threes — some of them reluctant heaves at the end of the shot clock, but counting for the same three points nonetheless. Ohio State made five of its first seven second-half threes and shot 8-of-16 for the half. Andre Wesson, Kaleb’s older brother, moved from his forward position to the 5 and scored most of his 22 points. He didn’t miss a shot until the game’s final minutes. He was 9-of-10.

“When they went small,” Coach Matt Painter said, “we couldn’t get a stop.”

A Purdue lead that peaked at 15 in the final two minutes of the first half was cut to just two with 10:15 remaining.

The Boilermakers, however, never gave up the lead, and after a bunch of cracks at pushing its lead past six, it broke through.

“After the 7:54 mark, we were in the huddle, and I was telling them, ‘We have to get over this hump,’” senior Ryan Cline said. “We had to push it to 10, to 12. We just couldn’t get over that hump. We finally did.”

Cline did it, knocking in a three with 4:16 left that pushed the score 72-63, about three minutes before his classmate delivered the figurative killshot.

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