Wednesday's Shootaround: Evan Turner > Robbie Hummel

Ohio State 70, Purdue 66: Robbie Hummel was unconscious. He scored 29 points in the first half, hitting 8-10 threes including a 4:18 second stretch when he made six straight from deep. At the break, Ohio State and Robbie Hummel were tied at 29. The problem? The rest of the Boilermakers only scored 12 points in the first half, and Ohio State never seemed out of it.

In the second half, neither team was able to get into a rhythm offensively, as the Boilermakers withstood an early run from the Buckeyes, holding the lead stead at around 10 points. But with just over four minutes remaining, Evan Turner took over. After a JaJuan Johnson dunk put Purdue up 62-52, Turner drove to the rim for an and-one layup. After the free throw, OSU threw a press at the Boilermakers, forcing back-to-back turnovers by Kelsey Barlow, which resulted in back-to-back layups for Turner. On Purdue's next possession, Dallas Lauderdale blocked a Chris Kramer layup, and William Buford found Turner trailing the play, and Turner knocked down a three to tie the game. All told, Turner went on an individual 10-0 run in the span of 1:19. He would hit four more free throws on OSU's next two possessions, giving the Buckeyes the lead for good.

For the game, Turner had 32 points and 9 boards on 11-21 shooting. The scary part? Turner was clearly not 100%. While his back may be ready to go, Turner looked tired and winded (understandable, he did play all 20 minutes), and appeared to be rusty (again, understandable) as he missed a number of shots around the rim that he usually makes. And he still led OSU back from a late double-digit deficit to Purdue in Mackey Arena. Even with six missed games, Turner has to be up there with John Wall in terms of national player of the year consideration.

Kentucky 89, Florida 77: John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins are not the only great freshman on the Wildcats. Eric Bledsoe is pretty damn good as well. Bledsoe scored 25 points and added 7 boards, 5 assists, and 3 steals while hitting 10-13 shots from the field and 3-4 from long range as he helped carry Kentucky to a tough road win at the O'Connell Center. With John Wall having an off-night (well, as off of a night as John Wall can have - he finished with 19 and 6 dimes), Bledsoe sparked Kentucky, breaking Florida's pressure single-handedly and sparking what was a dormant Wildcat team for the first eight minutes.

Florida made a second half run, coming back from down 57-42 to tie the game at 72, but UK responded. Patterson hit a short jumper, and Darnell Dodson knocked down a three before a Chandler Parsons free throw made it a four point game. Bledsoe put the game out of reach, knocking down a three and hitting a layup that put it back to nine with under two minutes left.

Colorado 78, Baylor 71: Quick, where's the toughest place to win in the Big XII? Answer: on the road. Baylor found that out the hard way, as they went into Boulder as a ranked team and came out with a loss. A late 14-4 run sparked by Cory Higgins, who scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half, gave the Buffs a 64-55 lead with 2:40 remaining. LaceDarius Dunn had 23 for Baylor, while Ekpe Udoh had 14 points and 14 boards.

NC State 88, Florida State 81: NC State hit 11 of 23 from deep, led by 31 points and 7 threes from Scott Wood, as the Wolfpack handed the Seminoles their second ACC loss in three days. Sidney Lowe's club used a 16-1 run midway through the first half to upen up a 23-12 lead, and NC State never trailed after that. Chris Singleton had a career-high 22 points to lead the Noles.

Wake Forest 85, Maryland 83 OT: After Greivis Vasquez broke a 74-all tie with 40 seconds left in regulation, Al-Farouq Aminu knocked down two free throws to force overtime in Winston-Salem. In the overtime, Jordan Williams tied the game at 83 with 51 seconds left as he tipped in a missed jumper from Vasquez, but Ishmael Smith scored on a floater in the lane at the other end for the eventual game-winner. Greivis Vasquez and Sean Mosley both missed threes on the Terp's final possession. Vasquez finished with a season-high 30 points and added 7 assists, while Aminu had 24 points and 13 boards to lead Wake.

Other notable scores

• Kansas State 88, Texas A&M 65: Denis Clemente scored 20 of his 24 points in the first half as the Wildcats jumped out to a big lead early, cruising to the win.
• VCU 81, Hofstra 68: Larry Sanders scored 31 points and hit 11-13 from the field as the Rams knocked off the Pride.
• Illinois 54, Penn State 53: Bruce Weber returned Demetri McCamey to the starting lineup, and he responded with 25 points, including a jumper with 1:02 left in the game that proved to be the game-winner.
• Northern Iowa 52, Bradley 50: The Panthers won their 14th straight game and improved to 6-0 in the Valley as Ali Farokhmanesh scored 14 points and Jordan Eglseder added 11 and 10 boards.
  

Tuesday's Best

• Robbie Hummel had 35 points and 10 boards, scoring 29 in the first half, but was outdone by Evan Turner, who had 23 of his 32 points in the second half.
• Eric Bledsoe carried Kentucky to a road win against Florida with 25 points, 7 boards, 5 assists, and 3 steals.
• John Holland scored 25 points and added 10 boards to lead BU to a win over UMBC.
• Greer Wright's 27 points left Binghamton to a 64-62 win and a 2-1 mark in the America East.
• Scott Wood scored 31 points and hit 7-11 from deep in NC State's upset win on the road at Florida State.