Women's Basketball
Boilers Hang On for Win over Buckeyes in Thriller in West Lafayette
By John Porentas

No. 19 Ohio State (17-6, 8-4 Big Ten) and Purdue (13-10, 9-3) matched up in an entertaining and for the most part well-played game, but a mistake by a coach with under 20 seconds to play and a bad play by a player with under 5 seconds left on the game clock cost OSU a loss as the Boilers held on for a 68-67 win in raucous Mackey Arena in West Lafayette.

Each team had moments when it looked like it would seize control of the game but didn't. The Buckeyes started the game by opening up an early double-digit lead, largely behind the shooting of freshman center Jantel Lavender. OSU led by 14 at 27-13. Coming out of a timeout at 9:52, the Boilers switched from a man to man defense to a matchup zone, and when they did, the Buckeyes stopped scoring and the Boilermakers got back into the game.

"That was a key," said Purdue Head Coach Lisa Bluder.

"We were talking about the pace. They just pushed the ball and got it inside. Give credit to them, they were just attacking and attacking, so we had to make an adjustment to slow them down and I think for six and half minutes they didn't score a field goal and that allowed us to make a run and come back," Bluder said.

Purdue went on a 12-0 run to cut the lead back to just two, and the dogfight was on. The Buckeyes finally began solving the zone and were able to maintain their lead despite the effort of Purdue point guard Fahkara Malone. Malone scored 17 points in the first half. That turned out to be second-best on the floor however as OSU freshman center Jantel Lavender scored 18 to lead all scorers and pace the Buckeyes to a six point half time lead.

The Boilermakers had the next chance to shine. Purdue finally wrestled the lead from OSU to go up 50-48 on a three pointer by Malone. The Boilers were able to stretch that lead to as many as seven points when OSU Head Coach Jim Foster went to his bench. Foster benched seniors Marscilla Packer and Tam Riley and brought in freshman Alison Jackson and little-used baseline player Sarah Schulze.

"I just wasn't happy with our upper classmen," said Foster. "I've been saying all along our freshmen are getting better, we've seen them getting better."

With the freshmen on the floor the Buckeyes were able to battle their way back and regained the lead at 59-58 on a basket by Schulze. OSU lead by five at the last media timeout with 3:58 remaining, but the Boilermakers were not ready to quit.

The Boilers clawed their way back to within two, and once again it was Malone who hit the big shot, another three pointer, this time to put Purdue up by one at 68-67 with 19 seconds left to play.

That's when the big mistake and bad play took place. Foster took Jackson and Schulze off the floor in favor of seniors Tam Riley and Marscilla Packer.

The Buckeyes were able to advance the ball over the time line and get a time out called with just over 10 seconds left to play. Foster called for a play to get Packer or Lavender open for the game winner, but the play broke down leaving the ball in the hands of Riley. Riley dribbled toward the hoop as the clock wound down and appeared to have an open shot, but instead elected to try and force a pass to Little who had flashed open on the baseline. The ball was intercepted by Purdue's Kalika France and the game ended with the Buckeyes failing to get off a shot.

"Tam was supposed to get the ball and Jantel was down-screening for Packer," said Foster. ""Packer was going to curl if we didn't get here we were going to throw the ball to Jantel," Foster said.

"Probably the mistake I made was putting the veterans back in the game. I should have let the freshmen finish out the game," Foster said. "I thought the freshmen played with poise, played hard. Jantel is Jantel. I thought Alison played with a great deal of poise and made some big field goals, was in the right place defensively. Sarah we moved to the post last week and she went there and wasn't afraid, took some shots and did some good things."

Lavender led all scorers with 30 points. Purdue countered with a more balanced offense that was led Malone with 23 points on 9-13 shooting that included 5-7 from three point range. Danielle Campbell contributed 18 and Lakisha Freeman and Kalika France 10 each. OSU's only other double figure scorer was Ashlee Trebilcock with 14. Campbell also recorded a double-double with 11 rebounds to go with her scoring.

The loss knocks the Buckeyes out of a three-way tie with Purdue and Iowa at the top of the Big Ten standings. The Hawkeyes and Boilermakers remain tied atop the league as Iowa defeated Michigan State tonight to keep pace with Purdue.

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