Minnesota crushes Purdue to reach Big Ten final

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/13/2010 - Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ralph Sampson III scored a team-high 13 points and Minnesota continued its quest to an unlikely NCAA Tournament bid with a dominating 69-42 drubbing of No. 6 Purdue in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament.

Minnesota (21-12), coming off an upset over Michigan State in the quarters on Friday, held the second-seeded Boilermakers to 11 points and 18.5 percent shooting in the first half to cruise to the lopsided win.

Another sublime performance will be needed for the sixth-seeded Golden Gophers to advance to the Big Dance though, as the top-seeded and No. 5 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes stand in their way in Sunday's championship game.

Colton Iverson had 11 points and six rebounds, and Devoe Joseph chipped in 10 and seven for the Gophers, who have won seven of their last nine games.

Purdue (27-5), the defending conference tourney champs, had won three straight since a 53-44 loss to the Spartans, but a poor showing in this one, plus the absence of star forward Robbie Hummel, has the Boilermakers looking at a much lower seed than what they were anticipating several weeks ago.

E'Twuan Moore, who rolled his ankle during the game, came in averaging 17.0 ppg but had just two points on 1-of-14 shooting for Purdue, which was led by JaJuan Johnson's 17 points.

Chris Kramer made a jumper 4:13 into the game to get Purdue within 9-4.

The Boilermakers, though, went without a point on the next 16 possessions, as Minnesota tallied 17 straight during the 11-minute stretch.

Purdue's ugly half was epitomized by a 3-on-1 break that ended in a turnover when Lewis Jackson threw the ball out of bounds near the seven-minute mark.

Justin Cobbs' bucket resulted in a 26-4 game with 4:20 left, and Johnson's make just before the buzzer finally put the Boilermakers in double digits, though they were down 37-11.

The 11 points was the lowest first-half total for Purdue since 1950. The previous low was 13, which occurred against Minnesota in 1982.

A 10-0 run in the early stages of the second half did little to give the Boilermakers momentum, as two Cobbs free throws past the midway point pushed the differential to 54-24.

Game Notes

The NCAA record, post-shot clock era, for the fewest points scored in the first half is six, posted by Northwestern against Illinois on February 19, 2000...Purdue had won the previous five meetings in the series...Minnesota made 48.0 percent of its shots, while Purdue ended with a 27.6 percent shooting effort...Paul Carter had eight points and 10 rebounds for the Gophers.

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