EVANSTON—Northwestern’s purple-clad fans raced to the middle of the floor Saturday with a reason to jump up and down and celebrate — the Wildcats finally beat a ranked team at Welsh-Ryan Arena.Drew Crawford hit two clutch 3-pointers and made a three-point play in the second half to lead a 72-64 win over No. 6 Purdue.Northwestern (13-4, 2-3 Big Ten) lost earlier at home to ranked teams Butler, Michigan State and Wisconsin but was able to send the Boilermakers to their third straight defeat by doing some storming of their own. They crashed the boards with a 42-23 rebounding advantage.The last time the Wildcats beat a team ranked as high as sixth on their home floor came in 1979, when they defeated then-No. 4 Michigan State 83-65. E’Twaun Moore led the Boilermakers with 24 points.Purdue (14-3, 2-3) has its first three-game losing streak since dropping five straight in 2006 at the end of coach Matt Painter’s first season.The Boilermakers’ performance on the boards Saturday was hurt by foul problems for 6-foot-10 JaJuan Johnson.Crawford’s first 3-pointer with just under seven minutes left put the Wildcats up 51-50 and they never trailed again.He hit another 3-pointer with 2:04 left to push the Wildcats ahead by four. And after a Purdue miss, he drove through the middle for a layup and was fouled. His three-point play with 1:32 to go put NU up 64-57.Two free throws by Luka Mirkovic gave the Wildcats a 10-point lead with 54 seconds to go.Robbie Hummel’s 3-pointer with 33.4 seconds left cut the deficit to six before the Wildcats ran out the victory when Jeremy Nash made two free throws.Juice Thompson, who played despite stomach problems, led Northwestern with 20 points. Mirkovic finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Crawford had 15 points, 11 in the second half.Purdue now plays at Illinois before starting a three-game homestand.Boilermakers guard Chris Kramer ended up on the court writhing in pain following a scramble for the ball with 5:37 left in the first half. He limped off the court, got treatment and was able to return, making a key steal and layup that got the Boilermakers within one at the end of the half.Ninety seconds after Kramer was hurt, Hummel headed to the locker room holding a towel to the side of his head to stop bleeding after apparently being hit by an elbow. He re-entered the game with 3:47 to go in the half and seconds later hit his first basket of the game, a jumper from the baseline.Hummel was already playing with a dislocated left pinkie, an injury he sustained late in Purdue’s 70-66 loss to Ohio State four days ago when he scored a career-high 35 points with eight 3-pointers. He had the injured finger taped to another one and managed five first-half points before finishing with 20.

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EAST LANSING—Tom Izzo put Kalin Lucas on the bench a couple of minutes into Saturday’s game.The Michigan State coach heard what he wanted from his star player, then liked what he saw.Lucas shook off a slow start and scored 20 points, leading the seventh-ranked Spartans to a 73-63 victory over Illinois that broke a first-place tie in the Big Ten.Lucas hasn’t always done that this season.When Izzo didn’t like how Lucas was leading the team last month, he held him out of a practice and didn’t start him a game.Lucas’ lackluster start Saturday put him next to Izzo after two missed shots led to the defending Big Ten champions trailing by six points.Lucas bounced back well enough to help Michigan State go from a six-point deficit with six minutes left in the first half to a 64-41 lead with eight minutes to go in the game.The Spartans (15-3, 5-0) are good enough to be alone atop the conference.Demetri McCamey scored 15 points for the Fighting Illini (12-6, 4-1) and didn’t get much help.Illinois has four players averaging at least 10 points, but didn’t have a second player in double figures until freshman Tyler Griffey made a 3-pointer late in the game. Griffey had 12 points and junior Mike Davis scored in the final seconds to finish with 11.Mike Tisdale was held to two points — 18 fewer than the junior was averaging in Big Ten play — and missed his only attempt from the field. Freshman D.J. Richardson missed all eight of his shots and finished with two points, nine less than his average.The Illini, who were ranked as high as No. 20 this season, had their first 4-0 start in the Big Ten since 2005. Next, they host No. 6 Purdue.Lucas’ first and only basket in the first half gave Michigan State its first lead 4½ minutes before halftime and Illinois couldn’t come back.The Spartans closed the first half with an 18-5 run — taking a 36-29 lead — and scored the first seven points after halftime.Illinois pulled within eight, then Lucas was dominant with six straight points and a three-point play that put the Spartans up 54-35.The Illini cut their deficit to 11 with 2½ minutes left, then Lucas made a layup on the ensuing possession.Michigan State’s Delvon Roe fouled out with 15 points. Raymar Morgan had 14 points and 10 rebounds as a reserve. Draymond Green provided his usual spark for the Spartans off the bench with all-around play, adding seven points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.Like anyone who has seen Green play lately, Weber raved about the sophomore forward.Michigan State, which has lost only once since falling Dec. 1 at North Carolina in a rematch of the national championship game, is 11-0 at home.