Purdue wears Big Ten tourney crown

INDIANAPOLIS - Purdue finally lived up to its billing.

The Boilermakers, the preseason favorites in the Big Ten, fell to a No. 3 seed in the conference tournament by losing three of their final four regular-season games.

They found their groove at Conseco Fieldhouse.

E'Twaun Moore scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half, and No. 24 Purdue rallied to defeat Ohio State 65-61 on Sunday for its first Big Ten tournament title.

Moore made 4 of 8 3-pointers in the second half.

"My teammates did a good job of distributing and finding the openings," he said. "I just got a few open looks. Once I got the first one (3-pointer), that gave me a little confidence."

JaJuan Johnson scored 16 points, and Robbie Hummel added 9 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists for the Boilermakers (24-9).

The Boilermakers committed 17 turnovers in the three tournament games, a departure from their sometimes sloppy play late in the regular season.

Purdue coach Matt Painter said the team responded well to being challenged.

"I think it makes you stronger," he said. "Any time you lose three out of four games, there's two ways to look at it. You can complain, or you can say we should have done this, we should have done that, or you can stick to what you've done the whole year and try to do a better job of what you do."

Hummel was named the tournament's most outstanding player.

The Boilermakers, the No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament West Region, will play Northern Iowa in the first round. Ohio State, the No. 8 seed in the Midwest, will face Siena.

The Buckeyes (22-10) were happy with their Big Ten tournament performance overall.

"This tournament this weekend gave us a lot of confidence," said Ohio State's Evan Turner, who led his team with 22 points and 10 rebounds in the championship game.