Big Ten Saturday Recap: Maryland takes down Purdue 72-61

Game of the Night

Purdue Boilermakers 61, Maryland Terrapins 73

The Terrapins found a way to pull past the Boilermakers late in the game in order to improve to 21-3 on the season. Maryland got its fourth straight win and its second win over a ranked opponent when it outlasted Purdue on Saturday afternoon. It was a battle of big men in College Park, and was it ever a fun contest. With that win and an Indiana loss later in the day, Maryland ascends to the number 2 spot in the conference standings, just behind the Iowa Hawkeyes. Purdue falls to 7-4 in the conference and 19-5 overall, but it still sits firmly in the conference race, tied for 4th with Michigan State.

Leading the way for Purdue was big man A.J. Hammons. He had a double-double on the night with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Outside of that, the Boilermakers didn't have a lot of scoring options on Saturday. Vince Edwards and Caleb Swanigan struggled, going a combined 8-22 from the field. Purdue managed to knock down just 3-25 (12.0%) from downtown. Needless to say, it was not a good night for Purdue in terms of shooting the basketball. The Boilermakers will hope to rebound when they face Michigan State on Tuesday.

Maryland was able to win this game largely in part to superb free throw shooting. As a team, the Terrapins went a combined 24-27 (88.9%) from the charity stripe; Purdue hit just 2-5 (40.0%). Maryland had 4 players in double figures on Saturday afternoon. Rasheed Sulaimon led the way with a double-double; he had 21 points and 10 rebounds. In addition, Robert Carter had 19, Melo Trimble had 14, and Diamond Stone had 12. While Maryland wasn't able to get much going from three-point range either (they shot just 22.2%), the Terrapins still managed to get the win. They'll look to stay hot when they host Wisconsin next Saturday.

The Rest

Michigan State Spartans 89, Michigan Wolverines 73

The Spartans were able to walk into the home of cross-state rival Michigan and absolutely blow the roof off. Michigan State was red-hot, shooting 64.0% from the field and 63.6% from downtown. Bryn Forbes had a huge night for the Spartans as he knocked down 8 three pointers and scored 29 points. Denzel Valentine had a near triple-double as he scored 21, pulled down 9 boards, and even dished out 8 assists. Michigan didn't play bad, it just didn't have an answer for the Spartans. The Wolverines were led by Zak Irvin with 19 points.

Indiana Hoosiers 63, Penn State Nittany Lions 68

Penn State found some life and was able to pull off a huge upset over the surging Hoosiers. Indiana had won 14 of its last 15 before dropping one on the road to the Nittany Lions. Indiana was not its normal self on offense. The Hoosiers went just 36.2% from the floor and 33.3% from long range. Nick Zeisloft led the way with 14 points. He was really the only one that had anything going on Saturday night. Yogi Ferrell went just 3-12 from the floor for 13 points. Brandon Taylor had a huge night for Penn State, scoring 24 points on 10-20 shooting. The Nittany Lions get a much-needed win on Saturday and hope to keep that momentum moving forward.

Rutgers Scarlet Knights 63, Nebraska Cornhuskers 87

Nebraska was able to get a solid home win over Rutgers thanks to 50.7% shooting from the floor. The Cornhuskers were firing on all cylinders against the Scarlet Knights and were led by Andrew White with 21 points and 8 rebounds. Shavon Shields had 17 and Michael Jacobson had 13 for Nebraska. On the other side of the ball, Rutgers struggled yet again and is still without a conference win this season. The Scarlet Knights got 28 points out of freshman Corey Sanders, but outside of that, not much was clicking. They didn't have the defense to shut down Nebraska.