Purdue rebounds from conference loss, downs Ohio 69-51

ATHENS, Ohio (AP) — Eric Hunter Jr. had 18 points on 4-for-5 shooting from 3-point range and Purdue bounced back from its first conference loss to beat Ohio 69-51 on Tuesday night.

Trevion Williams added 14 for the Boilermakers (7-4, 1-1 Big Ten), who kept Ohio (7-4) at bay as the Bobcats surged to begin the second half after being down 20 at the half. The Bobcats got within seven points with 11 minutes left in the game but couldn’t chip away any more.

Purdue was playing without 7-foot-3 junior center Matt Haarms, who suffered a concussion in Sunday’s loss to Nebraska. Nojel Eastern, a 6-foot-7 guard, started in place of Haarms and had 11 points.

Jordan Dartis paced the Bobcats with 16 points. Purdue was able to hem-in Ohio’s leading scorer Jason Preston, who finished with just six points.

Purdue led 37-17 at the half on the strength of two 12-point runs and helped by 10 Ohio turnovers. The Bobcats didn’t score — and didn’t even get a good look — for the last 6:25 of the half. Hunter was 3 for 3 from beyond the 3-point arc.

The Bobcats fought back in the second half, ripping off a 14-2 run to get within seven but that was it. Ohio hit just 37% from the floor for the game.

BIG PICTURE

Purdue: The Boilermakers made it hard for Ohio to get many good looks in the first half and held off the Mid-American Conference team for the second straight December.

Ohio: Expectations were low, but the Bobcats have started well. An impressive surge got them closer to what would have been a historic win, but in the end they were no match for a Big Ten team still smarting from losing a conference game last weekend.

UP NEXT

Purdue: Hosts Butler on Saturday.

Ohio: Hosts Morehead State on Saturday.

___

More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 ­­­

­­___

Follow Mitch Stacy at http://twitter.com/mitchstacy