The Ohio State men’s basketball team will try to make it two road wins in a row tonight at 8 p.m. when it faces Purdue at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind.
Winning on the road in college basketball is never easy, but in the Big Ten Conference it is almost impossible. With their 83-72 win over Iowa at Carver Hawkeye Arena on Saturday, the Buckeyes ended a three-game losing streak and recorded their first road win of the season.
Overall, out of the 30 Big Ten conference games played this season, the road team is 9-21.
The Buckeyes (9-8, 2-4) will face another difficult test against the Boilermakers (12-4, 4-1), who come into the game at second place in the conference.
The Buckeyes have had success lately against Purdue, winning the last six games in the series, including two last season. While Purdue’s home record is impressive, the Buckeyes’ recent success at Mackey Arena gives them confidence that they can win.
“We talked about it at Iowa and we’ll have the same talk before this game,” Buckeye coach Jim O’Brien said. “With the success we’ve had, we knew we could get it done and guys appreciate that they can get it done because they’ve done it before.”
Purdue has been one of the biggest surprises in the Big Ten this season after two consecutive disappointing seasons — during which its record was a combined 30-33. The Boilermakers won Saturday at home against Indiana to break a streak of five straight losses to the Hoosiers. In the 69-47 win, guard Kenneth Lowe led the scoring with 19 points, and guard Willie Deane chipped in 18. The win improved Purdue’s home record to 10-0.
In OSU’s victory against Iowa, the Buckeyes rebounded from a slow first half, scoring 55 second-half points. The 55 points were more than the Buckeyes scored in any of their three previous losses to Michigan (61-50), Wisconsin (53-52) and Indiana (69-51).
Guard Brent Darby led the Buckeyes with 29 points. However, for the first time in a while, the Buckeyes’ supporting cast came up big. Guards Sean Connolly (17 points) and Matt Sylvester (11) and center Velimir Radinovic (10) added double-digit point totals for OSU.
“It’s nice to have other guys step up because it gives us a better chance to win basketball games when Brent (Darby) doesn’t have to score 25 or 30 points a game,” O’Brien said. “When other guys play that well, there isn’t as big of an advantage when they key in on Brent. That frees everyone else up to play well.”
Against Purdue, the key for the Buckeyes will be to contain the starting backcourt of Deane and Lowe, Purdue’s two leading scorers. Deane, an early favorite for Big Ten Player of the Year, is the team’s leading scorer and is tied for second in scoring during conference play with Darby at 18.8 points per game.
Lowe is averaging 12.3 points per game and leads the conference in steals with 2.0 per game.
