Purdue 86, Indiana 75: Boilers Win 23rd Big Ten Championship

The journey is complete. A close game that had a lot of awful foul calls both ways turned into a slog in the second half, but Purdue has done it. They closed out against the hated Indiana Hoosiers at home, got a season sweep of their rivals from Bloomington, and on Senior night earned at least a share of their Big Ten record 23rd regular season championship.

Yes, there is still work to do on the season, but Purdue has locked up the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and can lock up its first outright Big Ten title in 21 years with a win on Sunday at Northwestern or if Wisconsin drops one of its final two games against Iowa or red hot MInnesota.

Purdue had the benefit of a hot Dakota Mathias to start and a ton of, admittedly, crap fouls called on De’Ron Davis and Thomas Bryant. Both fouled out with plenty of time left in the game and little-used Tim Priller even had to come in. He contributed six points and used four fouls too.

Indiana had a lead for about a minute at 17-14, but Mathias then scored 8 straight and finished the first half with 17 points and 5 rebounds. He closed the night out with 19 points and 7 rebounds. Vince Edwards had 15 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists.

Oh, and that Caleb Swanigan guy had a monster second half to finish with 21 points and 10 rebounds.