COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA TOURNAMENT : NATIONAL ROUNDUP : Purdue Proves It Hasn’t Lost Bite

Purdue did it again, this time without the Big Dog.

Written off as a title contender at the beginning of the year, the surprising Boilermakers finished the regular season with a 73-67 victory over Michigan on Sunday at West Lafayette, Ind., to clinch their second consecutive Big Ten championship.

The 14th-ranked Boilermakers, who lost college player of the year Glenn (Big Dog) Robinson to the NBA and were picked no higher than sixth in most preseason conference forecasts, also earned the Big Ten’s automatic spot in the NCAA tournament.

“The game kind of exemplified our whole season,” Coach Gene Keady said. “You struggle, it looks like it’s kind of ugly, it looks like you may lose it, and all of a sudden you find a way to get over the hump.”

Cuonzo Martin scored 17 points and Matt Waddell added 14 as Purdue (24-6, 15-3) won its eighth game in a row, its 14th in the last 15, and finished one game ahead of No. 9 Michigan State.

Michigan (17-13, 11-7), losing its fifth consecutive game on the road, finished tied for third in the conference with Indiana.

Seniors Ray Jackson and Jimmy King, the last of Michigan’s Fab Five freshmen of three years ago, led a comeback that brought the Wolverines within four points in the closing minutes but they got no closer.

Indiana 110, Iowa 79--Senior Alan Henderson, playing his final game at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind., scored 35 points to lead the rout over the Hawkeyes.

Pat Knight, the son of Coach Bob Knight and the only other senior on the team, got four points, four assists and a hug from his father when he left the game.

Brian Evans made five three-point shots in the first half, when he scored 19 of his 28 points for the Hoosiers (19-11, 11-7). It wasn’t a good day for Iowa (19-11, 9-9), which was passed over by the NCAA tournament selection committee.

BIG EAST TOURNAMENT

No. 13 Villanova 94, No. 6 Connecticut 78--Villanova’s first Big East tournament championship came after the teams split the regular-season meetings, each winning on the other’s home court.

In the championship game at New York, the second-seeded Wildcats got 27 points each from Kerry Kittles and Jason Lawson and withstood a furious rally in the second half.

Villanova (25-7) led, 67-50, with 12:42 to play, but the Huskies (25-4), the first team to repeat as Big East regular-season champions with a second consecutive 16-2 league mark, got within 77-72 with 4:57 left.

That was all they could muster, though, as Connecticut didn’t score again until there was 1:38 to play and by then Villanova’s lead was back to 15 points.

Villanova won the NIT last season.

BIG EIGHT TOURNAMENT

No. 19 Oklahoma State 62, Iowa State 53--Bryant Reeves, held scoreless in the Cowboys’ last regular-season game at Kansas, a 78-62 loss, was named most valuable player of the tournament after leading his team to the championship. The 7-foot Reeves scored 21 points in the final.

Reeves keyed an Oklahoma State rally at the start of the second half as the Cowboys (23-9) pulled ahead by as many as 15. The Cyclones (22-10) rallied and were within 48-46 with 4:44 remaining, but never came closer in losing to the Cowboys for the seventh time in a row.

Randy Rutherford, who became the Big Eight’s all-time leading three-point shooter, scored 17 points for Oklahoma State. Rutherford made four of his eight three-point shots, giving him 262 in his career and moving him past Terry Evans of Oklahoma on the all-time list.

METRO TOURNAMENT

Louisville 78, Southern Mississippi 64--Jason Osborne made a three-point shot to ignite a 7-0 spurt in the second half that carried the second-seeded Cardinals (19-13) over the fifth-seeded Golden Eagles (17-12) in the final at Louisville, Ky.

S.W. ATHLETIC TOURNAMENT

Texas Southern 75, Mississippi Valley 62--Despite playing without their star point guard in the second half, the Tigers (22-6) defeated the Delta Devils (17-11) in Baton Rouge, La. Texas Southern point guard Kevin Granger injured his right ankle late in the first half and had to be helped off the court. He did not return to the game, but the Tigers managed to win their second SWAC championship in a row.