Northwestern's loss gives Purdue basketball share of Big Ten championship
WEST LAFAYETTE – The idea was to win a share of the Big Ten regular-season title with a victory over Indiana on Saturday night at Mackey Arena.
That didn’t happen.
But less than 24 hours later, the Boilermakers claimed a piece of the conference title when second-place Northwestern lost at Maryland on Sunday. Purdue has a two-game lead in the standings with two games to play. The Boilermakers can win the outright title with a victory Thursday at Wisconsin or against Illinois next weekend.
It’s the program’s 25th regular-season Big Ten championship, the most of any league school.
In the preseason media poll, the Boilermakers were picked to finish fifth and started the season unranked. Purdue has been in first place in the league standings since the start of the conference season and won 11 of its first 12 games to remain at the top.
Maryland, Northwestern, Indiana and Michigan are tied for second place at 11-7 after Sunday’s action.
