March 1, 2026; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Purdue Boilermakers center Oscar Clough (45) drives to the basket as Ohio State Buckeyes center Ivan Njegovan (7) plays defense in the first half at Value City Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Image John Mobley Jr. was in Columbus on Sunday when the Buckeyes were ranked No. 8 Four Ohio State players scored 21 points to lead by double digits in upsetting Purdue 82-74.
Bruce Thornton had 20 points, Amare Bynum 14 and Devin Royal 12 for the Buckeyes, who lost their second straight game.
Ohio State (18-11, 10-8 Big Ten) led 67-51 before the Boilermakers pulled to within 69-63, but Bynum hit a 3-pointer and Royal followed up with a tip-in to make it 74-63 with 1:40 to play. Purdue didn’t get closer until after 7:00.
Braden Smith led Purdue (22-7, 12-6) with 20 points and Trey Kaufman-Len scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half before fouling out with 19 seconds left.
The Buckeyes were running out of time and desperately needed a signature win to boost their chances of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Improved to 2-7 against ranked opponents and 2-10 against Quad 1 teams.
Ohio State also sits tied for eighth in the conference with Iowa with two games left in the final double bye of the Big Ten tournament.
Meanwhile, Purdue missed the opportunity to tie for fourth place with Illinois and recorded a triple bye.
Smith had seven assists and passed Long Island University Brooklyn’s Jason Brickman (1,007 from 2010-14) to move into fourth place on NCAA all-time. Next is Ed Cota of North Carolina (1996-2000) with 1,030.
The Buckeyes overcame an early seven-point deficit to take a 36-31 halftime lead, with Mobley scoring 11 points and Bynum 10. Thornton (20.0), Ohio State’s leading scorer, rebounded from a poor outing in Wednesday’s 74-57 loss to Iowa in which he went scoreless through the first 27 minutes.
He went 3-of-4 from the floor and had seven points in the first 20 minutes.
Smith had 11 points for Purdue in the first half, including 1 of 2 foul shots while the Buckeyes went 8 of 11.
The Boilermakers led 16-9 before the Buckeyes tied the game at 19, took the lead on Mobley’s jumper with 7:39 to play, and couldn’t follow the rest of the way.
Ohio State center Christophe Tilley returned after missing the game with an ankle injury. He had 7 points and 5 rebounds.
–Field level media
