Big Ten Tournament Semifinals: No. 1 Ohio State started the day by advancing to the championship game with a 63-52 victory over No. 4 Purdue. For most of the game, the Boilermakers were right there and led on a couple of occasions, before the Buckeyes put them away with a late run. Greg Oden led four players in double figures for Ohio State (29-3) with 17 points, 19 rebounds and four blocked shots. Purdue (21-11) was led by Carl Landry’s 24 points.
The Buckeyes’ opponent on Sunday will be No. 2 Wisconsin, which pulled away from No. 6 Illinois for a 53-41 win. In the latter part of the second half, the Badgers (29-4) started to break the game open, going up 49-37 and never being challenged after that. Alando Tucker became the school’s all-time leading scorer, passing Michael Finley with 21 points to lead the Badgers, who also got 16 points (14 in the second half) from Kammron Taylor. Illinois (23-11) was led by Warren Carter’s 14 points. [3/10/07]
