EAST LANSING, Mich. – Purdue refused to make its travel woes an excuse for getting routed at Michigan State.
Freshman Branden Dawson scored 14 points to help the ninth-ranked Spartans pull away and beat the Boilermakers 83-58 Saturday.
Purdue was scheduled to fly from Indiana late Friday afternoon, but its first plane had a problem, leading to the team getting another aircraft that sat on the runway for 3 hours late in the evening and didn't take off.
Boilermaker coaches and players went home to take naps before boarding a bus at 4:45 a.m. and arriving in East Lansing a little more than 2 hours before tipoff.
"Even if travel was perfect, it would have been a similar score," Purdue coach Matt Painter insisted.
The Boilermakers (14-6, 4-3 Big Ten) had a chance to move into a first-place tie atop the conference, but lost for the third time in five games.
Purdue's Robbie Hummel failed to make a shot for the first time in his injury-filled career that dates to 2007, going 0 for 11 and scoring just two points to match a personal low.
"I thought I had a lot of good looks and just couldn't make them," he said. "It was frustrating. It's embarrassing not to be able to make a shot."
Hummel, who entered the game averaging a team-high 16 points, tore the ACL in his right knee nearly two years ago and missed last season after reinjuring the same knee.
Painter said he heard someone say, "I hope you tear your ACL again," during Saturday's game and the coach responded with some words of his own.
"We got guys in our student section that probably say some things that are out of line, too, but I'm just not taking that," Painter said. "Somebody has to fight for him."
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said he would've thrown the fans out if he heard him say that to Hummel.
Painter also said Dawson engaged him by "rubbing it in" near the Purdue bench during the lopsided game.
Dawson insisted he was simply talking with Boilermakers he knows such as Anthony Johnson when Painter lashed out at him.
"I think it all had to do with me not going there," said Dawson, who is from Gary, Ind. "They've got a great program and coach Painter is a great coach."
Izzo said he would be disappointed if, in fact, Dawson was talking to Painter.
"If he was, I'm going to handle it," Izzo said.
The Spartans (16-4, 5-2) moved into a first-place tie in the Big Ten by stopping their second two-game skid this season.
They went ahead of Purdue when Valparaiso transfer Brandon Wood made a 3-pointer with five-plus minutes left in the first half and didn't give up the lead.
Michigan State led by seven at halftime and built a 23-point lead midway through the second half in which it outscored Purdue 52-34.
The Boilermakers didn't have a double-digit scorer until Lewis Jackson made two free throws with 7:23 left in the game. Jackson finished with 10 points and reserve Neal Beshears also scored 10.
The Spartans had lost two straight at home to Purdue, which beat them 67-47 in their last matchup at the Breslin Center, and avoided their first three-game losing streak to a team in East Lansing since Izzo became head coach in 1995.
Michigan State matched its largest margin of victory against the Boilermakers, equaling the 25-point win it had in 2006.
"We had to make some shots early in the second half, we couldn't and then it got ugly," Painter said.
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