Indiana-Purdue always seems to come down to a last-second shot, and on Tuesday night the last one went in for the Boilermakers.
Chad Austin made a 15-foot fallaway jumper in the final second of overtime Tuesday night, giving Purdue an 89-87 win over the Hoosiers in Bloomington."All I was thinking was to get a good shot off," said the 6-foot-2 Austin, who was hounded defensively by 6-7 Charlie Miller before hitting his jumper while fading into the corner.
Last year, Austin made a game-winning shot with 14 seconds left to beat Indiana, and he scored 25 points in the Boilermakers' 70-53 victory over the Hoosiers in West Lafayette last month.
This shot, though, had much more riding on it. A loss would have damaged Purdue's already shaky hopes of making the NCAA tournament. The Boilermakers (14-10, 9-5 Big Ten) likely need three more wins in their final four regular-season games to have a shot at a berth.
Austin's heroics gave Purdue coach Gene Keady his 400th career victory and his 200th in the Big Ten. It also evened Keady's record against Indiana coach Bobby Knight at 17-17.
Keady said he didn't think about the milestone until he was already in the locker room.
Indiana (20-8, 7-7) has 13 nonconference victories, but still could be on the NCAA bubble with six other Big Ten teams having better conference records.
Indiana freshman A.J. Guyton matched his season-high with 31 points, including a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left in overtime that tied it 77-77.
It was Purdue's fifth victory in the past six games against Indiana and its 100th win overall - the most by any team against the Hoosiers - in the 170-game series that began in 1901.
No. 6 Duke 84, No. 8 Clemson 77
At Durham, N.C., Trajan Langdon scored a career-high 34 points as the sixth-ranked Blue Devils moved a little closer to winning the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title.
With a small lineup working wonders again, Duke (22-5, 11-3 ACC) won its season-high seventh straight and 11th in 12 games to move one full game ahead of No. 4 Wake Forest, which visits No. 12 North Carolina tonight.
The Tigers (20-6, 8-5), who stayed in the game in the first half by making 13 of 15 free throws, are 4-5 since getting as high as No. 2 in The Associated Press poll on Jan. 20.
Greg Buckner led the Tigers with 22 points.
No. 9 South Carolina 78,
Arkansas 65
At Columbia, S.C., Ryan Stack scored 10 of his 14 points in the first half as the Gamecocks beat the Razorbacks for the first time.
Stack had two 3-pointers during a 19-5 run as the Gamecocks (19-6, 12-1 Southeastern Confernece) went up 25-12 and cruised to their 14th victory in 15 games. It was their first win in six games with Arkansas since both joined the SEC in 1991.
Glendon Alexander had 19 points for Arkansas (14-9, 7-6), which needed a nationally televised victory to help their case for the NCAA tournament.
Larry Davis had 17 points to lead South Carolina.
No. 11 Cincinnati 97, Houston 64
At Cincinnati, the Bearcats reached the 20-win mark for the sixth consecutive season behind Melvin Levett's career-high 25 points.
Cincinnati (20-5, 8-1 Conference USA) has won 20 games in seven of coach Bob Huggins' eight seasons. The Bearcats were still stinging from a 14-point loss to South Carolina, and they took it out on Houston (11-12, 3-8).
Levett, a backup guard, topped his previous career best by eight points. Danny Fortson added 21 and nine rebounds.
Damon Jones led Houston with 14.