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Sports

Purdue Beats Indiana 33-25 to Become Bowl Eligible

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Purdue reclaimed the Old Oaken Bucket with a milestone achievement Saturday.

The Boilermakers are bowl eligible, but must wait to learn their fate.

Ralph Bolden and Antavian Edison each ran for touchdowns, Caleb TerBush threw for another and Cameron Wiggs made three field goals, leading the Boilermakers past archrival Indiana 33-25 and possibly into the postseason.

It's the first time since 2007, and the first time under coach Danny Hope, that Purdue has been bowl-eligible. But at 6-6 (4-4 Big Ten), Purdue is the 10th conference school to reach the mandatory six wins to become eligible for a bowl game. The problem: The Big Ten has only eight bowl tie-ins, so the Boilermakers are not guaranteed another game.

The big win was tarnished by an apparent injury to Bolden's right knee; also the same knee in which he sustained a season-ending torn ACL last season. Bolden rushed 14 times for 54 yards and scored on an 8-yard TD run. He also caught four passes for 63 yards but did not finish the game.

Purdue officials did not have an immediate update on Bolden's condition.

TerBush, who started and finished the game despite being replaced a couple of times by Robert Marve, was 16 of 25 for 192 yards with one TD and no interceptions.

The Hoosiers (1-11, 0-8) completed their first season under coach Kevin Wilson with nine straight losses. Indiana is the only BCS-conference team to go winless against Football Bowl Subdivision foes this season.

Freshman quarterback Tre Roberson was 17 of 26 for 147 yards with one interception, which was a controversial play that the officials decided to review before announcing that a dual-possession play was not reviewable.

Stephen Houston rushed seven times for 129 yards and one score, and D'Angelo Roberts scored on two of his four carries.

It looked like it would be a wild shootout early.

Houston opened the scoring when he found a hole in the middle of the line and sprinted 52 yards to give Indiana a 7-0 lead.

Purdue answered with a 14-yard TD pass from TerBush to Edison to make it 7-7.

Roberts followed that with a 6-yard TD run up the middle to give Indiana a 14-7 lead with 1:05 left in the first quarter, and after Indiana made it 17-10, Purdue flipped the game.

Raheem Mostert took a short kickoff, found a hole in the middle of the field, cut left and zigzagged his way to Indiana's 8-yard line. On the next play, Bolden converted the 81-yard kickoff return into a score with an 8-yard TD run to tie the game at 17.

The Hoosiers didn't get back into Purdue territory the rest of the half, while Wiggs made field goals of 43 and 48 yards to give the Boilermakers a 23-17 lead at the half.

The two defenses dominated the second half.

For the first time in 29 quarters, Indiana held an opponent scoreless for an entire quarter.

But Wiggs made a 22-yard field goal early in the fourth and Edison scored on a 5-yard run with 11:04 left to give Purdue a 33-17 lead.

Indiana closed to 33-25 on Roberts' 5-yard TD run and a two-point conversion with 8:22 left, and the Hoosiers appeared to be in position to tie it until Josh Johnson stole the ball away from Nick Stoner with 4:11 to go. The Hoosiers didn't get the ball back.

Akeem Hunt ran 10 times for 100 yards for the Boilermakers.