Hummel carries Purdue past Wisconsin

Freshman Robbie Hummel scored a career-best 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting, and No. 24 Purdue upset host No. 8 Wisconsin 72-67 on Saturday night to extend the Boilermakers' winning streak to nine.

Purdue (19-5, 10-1 Big Ten) last beat a team ranked in the top 10 on the road on March 1, 1998, at No. 10 Michigan State. The Boilermakers had last beaten the Badgers (19-4, 9-2) in Madison on Feb. 7, 1996, a span of eight games.

But these Boilermakers, led by a pair of unflappable freshmen in Hummel and E'Twaun Moore, were unfazed and became just the second Big Ten team in Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan's era to win at the Kohl Center.

Purdue, off to its best start in the conference in 20 years, now controls its fate in the Big Ten in an effort to win its first regular-season title since 1996.

The Boilermakers are a game up on Wisconsin, which had its 16-game conference winning streak at home snapped. Purdue also beat the Badgers 60-56 at home on Jan. 26 and has two more victories than 8-1 Indiana, which plays at Ohio State on Sunday.

Chris Kramer scored 12 points and Moore added 11. Wisconsin got 14 points apiece from Jason Bohannon and Michael Flowers, 12 from Joe Krabbenhoft and 10 from Brian Butch.

The Badgers, trailing by as 15 in the second half, cut the lead to 68-65 with 1:22 to play off 2 free throws by Bohannon after Moore fouled out.

Wisconsin fouled JaJuan Johnson on the other end, and he made 1 of 2 free throws before stripping Wisconsin's Trevon Hughes. The ball squirted to Purdue's Keaton Grant, who dunked it to give the Boilermakers a 71-65 lead with 57 seconds left.

The Badgers never got closer than 4 from there as Marcus Landry and Hughes missed desperation 3s in the closing seconds while the Badgers ran off too much time on offense.

Already up 42-32 at the half after shredding the nation's best scoring defense by shooting 64 percent in the first half and 53 percent for the game, Purdue's freshmen came out strong when Hummel opened the second half with two 3-pointers to give Purdue a 48-34 lead.

Moore added a basket of his own, Hummel rimmed in another shot and a free throw by Johnson gave the Boilermakers a 53-38 advantage with 14:13 to play.

But Moore picked up his fourth foul with almost 13 minutes left as the Boilermakers surpassed the Badgers average of 54.1 points allowed off Hummel's putback with 10:51 to play.

Wisconsin, which had stayed in the game thanks to its free-throw shooting, missed its first after 20 straight midway through the second half, but Landry got an offensive rebound and Bohannon hit a reverse layup to pull to 57-49.

After the Badgers cut it to 4, Kramer answered with a layup in transition after a block by Grant and a 3-point play to give Purdue a 64-55 lead with 5:31 left, setting up the Badgers' final rally.

The Badgers, who finished 30 of 33 from the line but 3 of 18 from 3-point range, are 104-7 at home since Ryan took over, and 51-3 in Big Ten play with the previous two losses coming against Illinois.

Minnesota 63, Iowa 50: Al Nolen gave Minnesota a lift in the second half and finished with 11 points, 8 assists and 3 steals to lead the host Gophers (15-7, 5-5 Big Ten) over Iowa (11-14, 4-8).

Damien Johnson had 9 points and 7 rebounds, and Spencer Tollackson scored 11 for Minnesota, which has won two in a row to rebound from a skid of four losses in five games. Justin Johnson scored 15 points and Tony Freeman 12 for Iowa.

Michigan 68, Penn St. 63: Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims scored 16 points each as host Michigan (6-17, 2-9 Big Ten) beat Penn State (11-12, 3-8). The Wolverines broke a six-game losing streak and picked up their second win of 2008. Penn State has lost eight of nine, its lone win being a Feb. 2 upset of then-No. 8 Michigan State.

Anthony Wright added 13 for Michigan, including 10 in the first half.

Talor Battle led Penn State with 13.