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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 25 • 10 BY BRIAN NEUBERT BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com CHICAGO — Purdue's trip to Chicago for the Big Ten Tournament saw the Boilermakers win the game they really needed. Purdue obviously got in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 9 seed, but had it lost to Penn State Friday, it might not have breathed so easily come Sunday morning. That game represented a po- tential bad loss staining its résumé right on the eve of judgment day, a situation that was far from ideal but came to pass after the Nittany Lions upset fifth-seeded Iowa a day earlier. Penn State led by as many 11 in the first half, but sticking to its strange pattern, Purdue roared back to win the second half and get the victory it needed, led by defense. D.J. Newbill, who led the Big Ten in scoring and had 37 on Purdue the last time these two teams met, scored 19, but was just 6-of-18 from the floor. Penn State shot 34 percent while Purdue dominated the glass in the second half and A.J. Hammons proved too much for the Lions on the interior, making 7-of- 10 shots, scoring 23, grabbing nine re - bounds and blocking four shots. While Purdue was too much for Penn State, Wisconsin was too much for the Boilermakers in the second half a day later. The Big Ten regular-season cham- pion and eventual Big Ten Tournament champion and NCAA No. 1 seed flexed its muscles after half, coming from five down at the break to outscore the Boilermakers by 25 after halftime in a 71-51 win. Following are takeaways from the week: S It's a good sign for Purdue that Kendall Stephens and P.J. Thompson are making shots and freshmen Dakota Mathias and Vince Edwards are making more important plays. In their first-ever postseason game, Edwards and Mathias arguably made the four biggest plays of Purdue's sec- ond-half run. Stephens was 3-of-3 from three- point range against Wisconsin, but strangely, Purdue's record this sea- son isn't very good when he makes a bunch of shots. Look it up. Weird. Thompson made a big three against Illinois in the regular- season finale, then two more against Wisconsin, including a buzzer-beating shot to give Purdue a five-point edge at half. He is not playing flawlessly as Pur- due's No. 2 point guard right now, but he has done some very positive things. S Purdue has got to figure out this uneven- ness between halves. The Wisconsin game was the fifth in a row in which Purdue saw dramatically dif- ferent results from one half to the next, almost like the Boiler- makers have the opponent right where they want them when trailing at half and like the Boil- ermakers should be really un- comfortable when leading at the break. It's very odd. j A LOOK BACK AT THE LAST WEEK OF BASKETBALL M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L G O L D B O X E S L I N K S T O G A M E S T O R I E S When I say "good," you say "neighbor." P097313.1 State Farm, Home Office, Bloomington, IL Call me for your insurance needs and see how it feels to be on a #1 team. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. ® CALL ME TODAY. Now that's teamwork. Trent B Johnson, Agent 249 E State Street West Lafayette, IN 47906 Bus: 765-743-9595 trentismyagent.com Tom Campbell A.J. Hammons played big against Penn State in a victory.