Purdue, Wisconsin advance in Big Ten
MINNEAPOLIS — Zach Edey had 29 points and 12 rebounds for third-ranked Purdue, and the Boilermakers recovered from a blown 12-point lead to beat Michigan State 67-62 in a hard-nosed quarterfinal game in the Big Ten tournament on Friday.
Lance Jones had 10 points and three steals with just one turnover for the Boilermakers (29-3), who advanced to play Wisconsin in the semifinals on Saturday despite matching their season-low score and being outrebounded (37-36) for only the second time all season.
Tyson Walker had 15 points, Malik Hall pitched in 12 points and Tre Holloman scored 10 points for the Spartans (19-14), who had an 18-0 edge in fast-break points and tied the game late before falling short in head coach Tom Izzo’s 1,000th game on the bench.
The Boilermakers are two wins away from matching Michigan State (1999, 2000) as the only Big Ten program to win both the outright regular season title and the conference tournament in consecutive years. The Spartans used that feat 24 years ago as a launching pad for the national championship, which still stands as the last time a Big Ten team won it all.
Meanwhile AJ Storr scored a career-high 30 points, Steven Crowl added 19 and No. 5 seed Wisconsin beat No. 4 seed Northwestern 70-61. Storr gave Wisconsin its first double-digit lead with 6:57 left in the second half when he sank a 3-pointer for a 62-52 lead.
Northwestern star Boo Buie made his seventh 3-pointer with 4:17 remaining to get within 65-59. But the Wildcats would not make another field goal the rest of the way.
Wisconsin stayed hot from 3-point range after making 16 on Thursday against Maryland. Freshman John Blackwell, who made four 3-pointers against the Terrapins, made his only 3-pointer against Northwestern with 2:14 left for a 70-59 lead.
Friday’s games
In Fort Worth, Kobe Knox had 17 points and top-seeded South Florida beat No. 8 seed East Carolina 81-59 on Friday to advance to the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament. … Corey Camper Jr. had 19 points in UTEP’S 65-63 win against Sam Houston in the Conference USA Tournament in Huntsville, Ala.
Michigan moves on from Howard
Michigan fired coach Juwan Howard on Friday after five seasons.
Howard finished with an 82-67 record. He won a conference regular season championship and was a win away from the Final Four in 2021, when he was named the Associated Press coach of the year.
He lost a school-record 24 games this season as Michigan plummeted to last in the Big Ten for the first time since 1967.