Ohio State Stops Purdue and Wins Big Ten Title

Jessica Davenport scored 20 points to lead No. 6 Ohio State to a 67-58 victory over No. 12 Purdue on Thursday night at Columbus, Ohio, giving the Buckeyes their first outright Big Ten title in two decades.

“Winning it is great,” Ohio State Coach Jim Foster said. “We shared it with a pretty good team last year [Michigan State] and we had to go 14-2 to do that. We beat some really good teams this year, including arguably four of the best down the stretch.”

The victory -- Ohio State’s 15th in a row since losing at Purdue, 61-59, on Jan. 1 -- gave the Buckeyes, 24-2 overall, 14-1 in the Big Ten, a two-game lead in the conference with one to play.

A crowd of 7,174 chanted “Big Ten champs” in the final seconds as Ohio State secured its first outright conference title since the 1985-86 season.

Katie Gearlds led the Boilermakers (22-5, 12-3) with 19 points.

No. 3 Louisiana State 86, Alabama 61 -- Seimone Augustus scored 32 points and the Tigers (24-2, 12-1) clinched at least a share of the Southeastern Conference title with a victory over the Crimson Tide (9-17, 3-10) at Tuscaloosa, Ala.

No. 4 Maryland 89, Clemson 63 -- Crystal Langhorne scored 16 points at College Park, Md., and the Terrapins (25-3, 12-2 Atlanta Coast Conference) handed the Tigers (8-19, 2-11) their ninth loss in a row.

No. 5 Tennessee 81, Auburn 56 -- Tye’sha Fluker scored a career-high 22 points at Knoxville, Tenn., and the Volunteers (25-3, 11-2 Southeastern Conference) built a big lead in the first half and never relinquished it on their way to a 13th consecutive victory over the Tigers (13-13, 4-9).

No. 13 Georgia 86, Arkansas 80 -- Sherill Baker scored 28 points to lead the Bulldogs (19-7, 9-4 Southeastern Conference) over the Razorbacks (13-13, 5-8) at Fayetteville, Ark.

No. 14 Michigan State 68, Michigan 42 -- Liz Shimek had 22 points and the Spartans (21-8, 11-5 Big Ten) defeated the Wolverines (6-21, 0-15) at Ann Arbor, Mich.

No. 15 Stanford 100, Washington 69 -- Candice Wiggins scored 29 points to help the host Cardinal (20-6, 14-3) clinch at least a share of its sixth consecutive Pacific 10 title with a victory over the Huskies (18-8, 11-6).

No. 20 Louisiana Tech 66, New Mexico State 53 -- Ty Moore had 15 points and the Lady Techsters (21-4, 13-1 Western Athletic Conference) defeated the Aggies (7-18, 4-10) at Ruston, La.

No. 22 Minnesota 65, Indiana 58 -- Jamie Broback scored 20 points at Minneapolis to help the Golden Gophers (18-8, 10-5) break a four-game losing streak with a victory over the Hoosiers (15-11, 9-6).

No. 24 Vanderbilt 72, Kentucky 55 -- Carla Thomas scored 17 points to lead the Commodores (18-9, 7-6 Southeastern Conference) past the Wildcats (19-7, 8-5) at Nashville.