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Tri-State Morning Tip-Off
A quick and easy daily recap of the night in area CBB and a look ahead to tonight's action.
Yesterday
Indiana 77 Penn State 71
Big road win at the iconic Palestra for the Hoosiers. The Hoosiers (12-3/3-1) throttled one of the conference's best offensive teams, holding Penn State 17 points below its season average. A 15-2 surge to open the second half -- sparked by swingman Mackenzie Mgbako's personal 8-0 run in 56 seconds -- provided crucial separation as IU won its fourth straight game. Mgbako finished with 20 points. The 98-year-old Palestra is one of the nation's most iconic basketball venues. Penn still uses it as its home court, and Penn State schedules one game there every season. Its hallways include a 1960s' black-and-white photo of Bob Knight during his Army coaching days.
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Purdue 79 Northwestern 61
Purdue (11-4/3-1) won its third straight game. The Boilers led by 23 at halftime (41-18), its largest halftime lead of the season. The big three of Trey Kaufman-Renn, Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith combined for 43 points in the win. Smith recorded his third straight 20-point game with 22 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds and 2 steals. Purdue held Northwestern to 38.3 percent shooting and its two leading scorers, Brooks Barnhizer and Nick Martinelli, who entered the game averaging 40.2 points per game between them, to 21 points on 6-of-23 shooting with 10 combined turnovers. Matt Painter won his 229th game in Big Ten Conference play, moving past Ward "Piggy" Lambert for fourth on the career wins list in conference history (Bob Knight – 355; Tom Izzo – 346; Gene Keady – 265).
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Today
Ohio State at Minnesota, 9pm
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Latest NET Rankings
1 Auburn
12 Kentucky
26 Purdue
28 Ohio State
32 Cincinnati
39 Louisville
54 Dayton
56 Indiana
62 Xavier
156 Miami
165 Ohio
172 Wright State
193 NKU