Hummel-less Boilermakers fall to Penn State; Spartans hold serve

Without starters Robbie Hummel (back spasms) and Chris Kramer (foot), Purdue couldn't quite overcome an awful start and fell on the road to Penn State, 67-64. To give you an idea of how bad this start was, Purdue's first 6 possessions ended like this: turnover, turnover, missed three, missed three, missed layup, turnover.

Meanwhile, Penn State was all over the offensive glass early, putting up attempt after attempt, leading to their first 7 possessions ending like this (not including the many misses): layup (and one), layup, layup, turnover, made jumper, made jumper, made three. All told, Penn State took a whopping 14 shots in their first seven possessions, making 6 of them - it's nearly impossible to stop somebody when they're getting that many opportunities, and Purdue's offense happened to be terrible as well for the same stretch.

So just like that, Penn State had a 14-0 lead 5 minutes in. Purdue did manage to come back, and even led briefly in the second half, but Penn State, to their credit, managed to regain control late and held on for the win.

The big story here was rebounding - Penn State rebounded over half of their misses, and it's very tough to beat a team that does that. We most often think of Robbie Hummel as an outstanding offensive player, which he is, but he's also Purdue's best defensive rebounder by a large margin. Even with Hummel, Purdue is a mediocre rebounding team; without him, they're downright awful.

Andrew Jones had 8 offensive rebounds to spearhead Penn State's bonanza, while Talor Battle and Stanley Pringle scored 21 and 18 points respectively. E'Twaun Moore led Purdue with 21 points on 14 shots.

It's unclear whether Hummel will be healthy enough to play against Wisconsin this Sunday, although it sounds possible. Another home loss to go to 0-3 would seriously threaten Purdue's conference title hopes. Penn State picked up a nice resume win, as I'm not sure that the selection committee would look close enough to realize that they beat a shorthanded Purdue squad. Box score.

In the other matchup of the night, Michigan State held serve at home to go to 3-0, defeating Ohio State by a score of 67-58. This game was tight until a 12-0 Spartans run late in the first half, and OSU was never really able to make much of a dent in the margin.

In a disturbing trend, Ohio State's once-stout defense again allowed more than a point per possession - actually 1.11 points per possession. Now, that's below Michigan State's adjusted efficiency for the season (1.16), but not by much. That's now four straight games in which a Buckeye opponent scored at least 1.07 points per possession. That streak should end promptly, as Ohio State next faces Houston Baptist and Indiana, but Thad Matta will have to figure something out defensively if the Buckeyes hope to contend in the conference.

Michigan State did two things well - grab offensive rebounds and get to the foul line. Kalin Lucas led them in the latter, helping him net 20 points on just 8 shots. Raymar Morgan had a 13-10 double-double, and Goran Suton came oh-so-close with 9 and 9. Box score.

Here's tonight's games (all times CT):

5:30pm - Michigan at Indiana - Big Ten Network
7:30pm - Northwestern at Wisconsin - Big Ten Network