Ohio St. tips Purdue in OT; No. 1 Tar Heels march on

Purdue coach Matt Painter couldn't hide the hurt.

"It's frustrating, but it's one game," he said. "We controlled our own destiny, and now we don't."

Jamar Butler scored 23 of his 25 points in the second half, and Othello Hunter, one of Ohio State's worst free throw shooters, hit 2 foul shots and made a big defensive play in overtime as the host Buckeyes upset the Boilermakers 80-77 on Tuesday night.

The loss dropped Purdue (23-7, 14-3), one-half game behind first-place Wisconsin in the Big Ten. The 10th-ranked Badgers will host Penn State tonight and Northwestern on Sunday. The Boilermakers finish at Michigan on Sunday.

The Buckeyes (18-12, 9-8), who had lost their last four, may have revived their hopes for an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament.

"We tried to ignore it," Butler said of the talk that the Buckeyes' NCAA chances were dead. "Of course, a win like this can help us. We're just going to try to get another one on Sunday (at home against Michigan State) and then get a few in the Big Ten tournament, if not win it. And hopefully get in."

Butler was the biggest difference. He managed just two free throws, missing his only shot from the field, in the first half. In the second 20 minutes, he was 6 of 7 from the field including 5-for-5 on 3-pointers.

"At one point, Terrance Crump, their point guard, told me, they (the other eight players) are going to be playing four-on-four all night because you're not going to get the ball," Butler said with a laugh. "I was standing out there and he was denying me."

Painter said once Butler found his range, it didn't matter how many players were guarding him.

"If you let someone like Jamar Butler shoot a couple of 3s, you can actually play good defense on him and he's still going to hit some shots," he said. "That's what he was able to do."

Hunter, averaging 9.3 points a game, had 15, as did Evan Turner.

E'Twaun Moore had 16 points for the Boilermakers, who had won 13 of 14, while Scott Martin had 14 and Robbie Hummel added 12 points and 10 rebounds.

N. Carolina 90, Florida St. 77: North Carolina didn't put on much of a crowd-pleasing show to celebrate its return to No. 1.

Tyler Hansbrough had 20 points, and point guard Ty Lawson added 10 in his first home game in a month to help the Tar Heels beat Florida State 90-77 on Tuesday night, keeping them in position to play for the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title this weekend at No. 6 Duke.

Marcus Ginyard added 13 points for North Carolina (28-2, 13-2), which led by 12 at halftime and maintained a comfortable margin through most of the second half for its seventh straight victory. The Tar Heels have won eight straight meetings and 19 of 22 in the series, and now can turn their attention to traveling to Cameron Indoor Stadium to face the Blue Devils on Saturday.

North Carolina, which shot 70 percent in the second half, spent 11 weeks atop the national rankings before losing 82-80 to Maryland here in January. The Tar Heels returned to No. 1 on Monday following Tennessee's loss at Vanderbilt last week.

Jason Rich had 27 points for the Seminoles (17-13, 6-9), who trailed by 6 points midway through the second half and could not rally.

Texas 70, Nebraska 66: D.J. Augustin scored 22 points, and No. 9 Texas went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final minute to hold off visiting Nebraska in the Big 12.

A.J. Abrams hit a clutch 3-pointer with 41 seconds left for the Longhorns (25-5, 12-3), who moved into a tie for first in the Big 12 with No. 5 Kansas. Texas was coming off an 83-80 loss at Texas Tech that ended an eight-game winning streak.

Nebraska (17-11, 6-9) rallied from a 38-25 halftime deficit to tie the game at 50-50 with 9:39 left.

Augustin then made two 3-pointers to give Texas a six-point lead. Nebraska center Aleks Maric went inside for two layups that tied the game for the last time at 61-61.

Abrams, who was 1-for-5 from the field in the first half, scored 11 points in the second half, including going 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the final minute.

Maric led the Cornhuskers with 17 points.

Marquette 67, Fla. Gulf Coast 37: Lazar Hayward had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead No. 21 Marquette past visiting Florida Gulf Coast.

Hayward, who was 0-for-8 from the field in the Golden Eagles' 70-68 overtime loss to Georgetown last Saturday, was an entirely different player against Gulf Coast, registering his fourth double-double of the season.

Wesley Matthews scored 12 points and Dominic James added 11 for Marquette (22-7), while Adam Liddell, Casey Wohlleb, Terike Barrowes, Rob Quaintance and Roman Narmbaye all scored 6 points for Gulf Coast (10-21) in the first meeting between the schools.