Feb 23, 2002
Post Game Audio:
By RUSTY MILLER
AP Sports Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Gene Keady knew his Purdue Boilermakers were in for a long night.
Boban Savovic, rebounding from one of the worst games of his career, led a first-half rally as No. 19 Ohio State beat Purdue 77-66 on Saturday.
The loss dropped the Boilermakers to 12-17 - the most losses in Keady's 22 seasons at Purdue.
"This team has a bunch of good kids that have the inability to guard people," Keady said.
Ohio State (19-6, 10-4) remained a notch behind Indiana in the Big Ten race. The Hoosiers, 10-3 in the conference, play at Michigan State on Sunday.
"We haven't talked about Indiana, about putting pressure on anybody else," Ohio State coach Jim O'Brien said. "We have talked about controlling what we can control. We have absolutely no say in what any of the other teams do, other than the ones we play. If we win the games we're playing and it's good enough, then great."
Savovic shot 1-of-4 from the field and had seven points, three turnovers and no assists in 31 minutes as the Buckeyes lost 63-57 at No. 24 Indiana in a battle of Big Ten co-leaders Wednesday.
Savovic had 13 points, two assists and no turnovers in the first half against Purdue as the Buckeyes righted themselves from a lethargic start. He finished with 16 points.
"Against Indiana, I tried to do too much. I made too many mistakes," Savovic said. "Tonight, I just played my game."
Savovic left immediately after the game to pick up his parents at the airport. They were flying in from Yugoslavia. His father has never visited him in Ohio.
"It's going to be great to see them," Savovic said.
Brian Brown led the Buckeyes with 18 points, and Brent Darby scored 15 and Sean Connolly 11 for Ohio State, which came home after going 1-3 on the Buckeyes' longest Big Ten road trip since 1949.
"It seems like we've been gone a long time," O'Brien said.
Keady expected Ohio State to relish the chance to return home for the first time in three weeks.
"It's fun to be home after four games in a row on the road," Keady said. "Of course they're going to be focused."
Purdue's Willie Deane, leading the Big Ten in scoring with 17.6 points a game, was limited to 12 points as he battled foul trouble most of the night. Darmetreis Kilgore scored 15 points, Rodney Smith 11 and Joe Marshall 10.
Purdue (4-11 in the Big Ten) has lost six of its last seven and went winless in road Big Ten games (0-8) for the first time since 1966.
Barring a run through the conference tournament and earning an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament, this will be only the second time a Keady-coached Purdue team hasn't played in the NCAA or NIT tournaments. His previous worst season - and the only other time the Boilermakers didn't make it into the postseason with him on the sidelines - was a 15-16 record in 1988-89.
The Buckeyes missed their first five shots and also had two turnovers while remaining scoreless for the first four minutes. Purdue led 5-0 at the outset and was still ahead 28-21 after John Allison's short bank shot with 6:18 left in the first half.
The Buckeyes, however, scored 15 of the half's final 19 points with Savovic leading the way with seven points.
Savovic opened the surge with a layup and then hit two free throws to start a 10-0 run. He later added a 3-pointer.
The Boilermakers went scoreless for more than 5 minutes, missing all six of their shots from the field with two turnovers.
Brown hit one 3-pointer and Darby added two more as Ohio State opened up a 50-37 lead in the first 6{ minutes of the second half. The lead never dipped below nine again.
Darby said he planned to watch Indiana's game at Michigan State.
"I'll go to church," Darby said. "I won't pray for anyone to lose."
Ohio State, which is 15-1 at Value City Arena this season, hit 13-of-23 3-pointers.
"That's the first time we've faced a zone defense in a long time and our guys did a good job of attacking their zone," O'Brien said.