Ohio St. Buckeyes vs Purdue Boilermakers Box Score on Mar 12, 2021

Ohio State squandered an 18-point halftime lead Friday but Seth Towns provided an overtime spark and the No. 9 Buckeyes outlasted No. 20 Purdue 87-78 in a quarterfinal of the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.

The fifth-seeded Buckeyes (20-8) will play fourth-ranked and top seed Michigan (20-3) on Saturday. In their only meeting this season, the Wolverines went on the road Feb. 21 to defeat the Buckeyes 92-87.

Duane Washington Jr. led the Buckeyes with 20 points. CJ Walker scored 18 points, and E.J. Liddell had 17 before fouling out in OT.

For the fourth-seeded Boilermakers (18-9), Trevion Williams had 16 of his 26 points in the second half, when Purdue outscored Ohio State 41-23 to force the overtime. He also had 14 rebounds while Jaden Ivey had 19 points.

Ohio State has been unable to hold leads recently and the trend continued. They lost all but one of a 12-point lead in the final 1:38 vs. Minnesota on Thursday before prevailing 79-75.

This time, Towns came off the bench to spark the Buckeyes in overtime. He had a 3-pointer and basket for an 80-76 lead, and when Washington drained a trey to make it 83-76 with 1:16 remaining, Ohio State regained control.

After Eric Hunter made one of two free throws for Purdue, Washington made two free throws to extend the lead to 85-77 with 39 seconds left. After Purdue's Aaron Wheeler missed the second free throw, Walker scored on a breakaway for the final margin with 27 seconds left.

Ohio State senior forward Kyle Young tied his career high with 18 points in just 19 minutes of action, but 2:56 into the second half he took an inadvertent elbow from Williams, left the game and did not return.

Young made all four of his 3-point shots in the first half when the Buckeyes took a 49-31 halftime lead.

The first half belonged to Young. He entered the game having made just nine 3-pointers all season but within the first six minutes had connected on three of them, and his 10 early points led Ohio State to a 13-10 advantage.

--Field Level Media