Ohio State Surprises Purdue

Ohio State's Michael Redd has an explanation for his team's recent success against Purdue.

"We have a lot more weapons and more athletes," said Redd, who scored a game-high 20 points as No. 15 Ohio State beat No. 18 Purdue 80-69 Saturday night to sweep the season series. "We have better conditioning and we're playing hard."

Before this season's sweep, the Buckeyes (17-6, 7-3 Big Ten) had lost 10 consecutive games to the Boilermakers (16-7. 4-5).

Ohio State led Purdue from start to finish as the Buckeyes turned a 49-34 halftime lead into a 65-41 advantage with 13:33 remaining. The Boilermakers battled back twice to close the gap to eight points but could not get closer.

"We came out with fresh legs and a lot of energy," O'Brien said. "Our aggressive defensive play was the reason we got out to a big lead. We guarded hard the entire game and we're not going to entirely control a team like this for a whole game. "

"We have some athletic kids, but we have to play hard because we're not that gifted. We were very active early. One of our keys this year is our depth."

Purdue trailed 75-67 with 3:06 remaining on Jaraan Cornell's 3-pointer, but Scoonie Penn hit a 3-pointer with 2:40 remaining to make it 78-67 to seal the victory.

Penn finished with 15 points and Jason Singleton added 14 points.

"It was a total team effort," Redd said. "It wasn't just me and Scoonie. The whole team showed up. The last two games we played (against Purdue) its been our quickness. That's the advantage we've had over a lot of teams this year. We are a step quicker and that helped us tonight."

Cornell led the Boilermakers with 18 points, while Carson Cunningham had 15 points and Brian Cardinal finished with 12 points.

The Boilermakers got as close as three points three different times in the opening half, but Neshaun Coleman's 3-point buzzer beater to end the first half gave Ohio State 49-34 lead.

"They really came out after us," Purdue coach Gene Keady said. "(Ohio State) got a lot of boards and their quickness really hurt us. In the second half, our goal was to get things going and cut down the lead to 12 or 10 right away. We just couldn't get over the hump.

"We are just going to have to fight through this to the next game. We really have our work cut out for us."

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