Ohio St. Buckeyes vs Purdue Boilermakers Match Player Stats On Dec 16, 2020

Trevion Williams had 16 points, nine rebounds and a career-high eight assists to lead Purdue to a 67-60 victory over No. 20 Ohio State in the teams' Big Ten opener on Wednesday in West Lafayette, Ind.

Eric Hunter Jr. had 15 points and Sasha Stefanovic 10 for the Boilermakers (5-2, 1-0 Big Ten), who led 38-33 at the half.

Justice Sueing led the Buckeyes (5-1, 0-1) with 14 points and Duane Washington Jr. added 13.

Ohio State trailed by 14 with less than nine minutes to play but closed to within 65-59 on Washington's 3-pointer with three minutes left. Brandon Newman responded with a jumper to make it 67-59.

Purdue got to that point by extending the halftime lead to 48-38 in the first four minutes after the break, but the Buckeyes scored six straight to pull to within 48-44.

Ohio State missed eight straight fields goals to fall behind 56-45 after Hunter scored from Williams on a backdoor cut with 8:15 remaining. Hunter stretched the lead to 59-45 with a 3-pointer.

Ohio State played its second straight game without E.J. Liddell, the team's leading scorer (15.5) and rebounder (7.5), who is sidelined with mononucleosis.

The score was tied at 28 in the first half when the Boilermakers scored eight unanswered points before the Buckeyes made a push to get to within five at halftime.

It started with a three-point play by Jimmy Sotos and was followed by Musa Jallow's dunk to make it 36-33 before Mason Gillis countered with a bucket for Purdue off Williams' fourth assist in the half.

Both teams next temporarily step out of the conference on Saturday. Purdue meets Notre Dame in Indianapolis in the Crossroads Classic. Ohio State was originally scheduled to face North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic in Cleveland but it was announced Wednesday that the Buckeyes will play UCLA because the Big Ten and Pac-12 have similar COVID-19 protocols. North Carolina will instead face Kentucky.

--Field Level Media