EVANSTON—Drew Crawford scored 19 points and blocked the potential tying 3-pointer at the buzzer to lead Northwestern to a 63-60 double-overtime victory over Purdue hours after a shooting on the Boilermakers’ campus on Tuesday.
Crawford scored four points in the second OT and delivered the big block on Ronnie Johnson off an inbounds pass as time expired to preserve the win.Tre Demps added 19 points, and the Wildcats (10-10, 3-4 Big Ten) prevailed on an emotional night for the Boilermakers (13-6, 3-3).An engineering student opened fire inside a basement classroom at Purdue earlier in the day, killing a teaching assistant, and there was a moment of silence before the game.A group of Northwestern students behind one basket had their chests painted purple with the message ”Stand with Purdue,” a show of solidarity in the wake of an event that rattled a campus. The Boilermakers were not there when the shooting occurred. They made the 140-mile trip from West Lafayette, Ind., on Monday because there was snow in the forecast and there were no classes due to Martin Luther King Day.Against that backdrop, Northwestern never led through regulation or the first overtime but still came away
with its third win in four games.A.J. Hammons had 17 points and 10 rebounds for Purdue. Terone Johnson scored 16, but the Boilermakers came up short after winning three in a row.NU never led until Crawford started the second overtime with a jumper to make it 53-51. Sanjay Lumpkin put the Wildcats back on top with a layup after Hammons hit two free throws for Purdue, and Crawford nailed a jumper from the wing to make it 57-53 with 2:28 remaining.Lumpkin then stole the ball from Kendall Stephens and converted two free throws to make it a six-point game with 1:13 left. But Purdue wasn’t finished.A 3-pointer by Terone Johnson cut it to 61-58 with 56 seconds remaining, and after Lumpkin’s pass went out of bounds off Crawford’s hands with 25 seconds left, things continued to tighten.Terone Johnson made two free throws after getting fouled on a drive to cut it to 61-60 with 17 seconds left, but Demps answered with two of his own to make it a three-point
game.Stephens missed a 3 from the left side, and Crawford blocked Ronnie Johnson’s 3 off an inbounds pass as time expired to preserve the win.Demps’ 3 with 1:36 left in the first OT tied it at 51, and both teams had chances to take the lead. Hammons caught a long inbounds pass and missed a short, wild flip from about 10 feet as time expired, sending it to a second OT.All this came after a wild finish in regulation.JerShon Cobb hit a floater to tie it at 46 with 31 seconds left, and Terone Johnson missed a drive along the right side in the closing seconds to send it to overtime.