COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State stunned No. 2 Purdue on Sunday in the debut of the Buckeyes’ interim coach, winning 73-69 a day after the NCAA tournament selection committee picked the Boilermakers as the early favorite to be the No. 1 overall seed during March Madness.
Bruce Thornton scored 22 points and Jamison Battle added 19 to help Ohio State (15-11, 5-10 Big Ten) pull off the upset in Jake Diebler’s first game at the helm.
Chris Holtmann was fired Wednesday after several disappointing seasons. The beleaguered Buckeyes had lost nine of their past 11 games.
Diebler became the second head coach since 1996-97 to beat an AP top-10 team in their Division I coaching debut, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Purdue (23-3, 12-3) had been favored by 7½ points, according to ESPN BET.
Ohio State played with energy from the start, led 35-30 at the break and was up by 12 six minutes into the second half.
With the Boilermakers closing down the stretch, it seemed like only a matter of time until Zach Edey took over the game, but that didn’t happen.
Lance Jones hit a 3-pointer for Purdue to tie the score at 65 with 1:39 left. But Battle hit a jumper and then, with 34 seconds left, made a pair of free throws to bump the Ohio State lead to 69-65.
An easy dunk by Edey reduced the deficit to two with 16 seconds left. The Boilermakers then fouled Thornton, who went to the line and made both foul shots to just about seal the game.
Edey finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds, the 58th career double-double for the Purdue star.
Purdue had won nine straight and 16 of its past 17. Its most recent loss was Jan. 9.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.