Purdue survives Penn State to win Big Ten Tournament
After the 2023 Big Ten Tournament finished, the Purdue Boilermakers stood above the rest of the conference as the champions. No. 10 seed Penn State entered the tournament as a bubble team and made quite a case for an at-large bid after rattling off a run to the championship game against No. 1 seed Purdue.
In the end, Purdue won their second Big Ten title in school history with a 67-65 win over the Nittany Lions — with their last title coming in 2009. The Boilermakers made their fourth appearance in the title game over the past seven years with this season’s performance, having lost in the championship game in 2016, 2018 and 2022.
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Purdue wins Big Ten Tournament
It wasn’t smooth sailing for Penn State, though, especially considering they had to try and stop Big Ten Player of the Year Zach Edey. Purdue led by as many as eight points in the first 10 minutes as Edey accounted for eight of the Boilermakers’ first 17 points. That lead grew to 11 points with 6:23 left to play in the half, before the Nittany Lions — fueled by the “booty ball” that has propelled their run — pulled back within six at the final media timeout. Purdue maintained the advantage, though, heading to the locker room with a 35-27 lead.
The Boilermakers continued to dominate through the second half and built up to a 17-point lead with just over six minutes remaining in the game. The game began to remind fans of their previous two meetings, which Purdue won by 13 and 20 points previously. Penn State wasn’t finished yet however, going on an eight-point run in response as time was winding down to cut the lead to just nine points with four minutes left.
Penn State continued their furious comeback to give themselves a chance to win it all as time was expiring, only to have the final shot waived off because of a travelling violation.
Ultimately, Purdue finished the job — despite the lead dropping to just one point — and brought an end to the amazing run Penn State put together with a 67-65 final score. The Boilermakers will now look ahead to where they will be seeded officially in the NCAA Tournament, with most bracket predictions putting them between a one or a two seed in the tournament.
Edey finished as the high scorer in the game with 30 points and 13 rebounds, with teammate David Jenkins Jr. adding 11 points off the bench.