Darron Cummings Associated Press Ohio State's Deshaun Thomas (1) celebrates with teammate Lenzelle Smith Jr. following their victory over Indiana. Thomas scored 18 points, and contributed to a decisive 11-2 run.

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No. 14 Ohio State ruins No. 2 Indiana's big night

Published: Wednesday, Mar. 6, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 2C

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – No. 14 Ohio State crashed No. 2 Indiana's big party plans Tuesday night.

The Buckeyes made Cody Zeller work for his 17 points, took Indiana's shooters out of their comfort zone and relied on Deshaun Thomas and Aaron Craft to deliver the late knockout punch in a 67-58 victory.

It doesn't any get sweeter than that – even if the Buckeyes don't want to make a big deal out of it.

"Where we were a couple weeks ago and where we are now, that just makes us appreciate this a little more," Craft said, referencing an 81-68 home loss to Indiana on Feb. 10.

This wasn't just a victory for Ohio State (22-7, 12-5 Big Ten Conference). It kept at least half of the league's teams in a title chase that will now go down to the regular season's final day.

Sunday's losses by Wisconsin and Michigan State gave Indiana (25-5, 13-4) a share of its first conference championship in 11 years.

A win over the Buckeyes would have given the Hoosiers their first outright Big Ten crown since 1993. They will get another chance Sunday at No. 7 Michigan.

But Thomas and Craft weren't going to let the celebration take place at their expense.

Thomas finished with 18 points and eight rebounds. Craft had 15 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals. And they combined for the first nine points in the decisive 11-2 run that forced Indiana to spend the rest of the game playing catch-up.

No. 3 Duke 85, Virginia Tech 57 in Durham, N.C. – Seth Curry scored 20 points in his final home game as the Blue Devils (26-4, 13-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) easily defeated the Hokies (13-17, 4-13).

The Blue Devils finished unbeaten at home for the 17th time in school history.

Erick Green scored 25 points on 10-of-19 shooting to lead Virginia Tech.

No. 9 Kansas State 79, TCU 68 in Manhattan, Kan. – The Wildcats (25-5, 14-3 Big 12 Conference) stayed tied with No. 4 Kansas for first place with one regular-season game to play.

Sophomore Angel Rodriguez had 21 points and 10 assists, and Kansas State seniors Jordan Henriquez, Martavious Irving and Rodney McGruder extended their career win total to 99, more than any class in school history.

Kyan Anderson had 29 points for the Horned Frogs (10-20, 1-16).

UTEP – Coach Tim Floyd has talked to USC about his old job as the Trojans' coach. He is not necessarily headed back to Southern California. Floyd met with athletic director Pat Haden about USC's coach opening, UTEP athletic director Bob Stull said.

Women

Stanford – Chiney Ogwumike is the first player to win Pacific-12 Conference Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season, and Tara VanDerveer won Coach of the Year for the 13th time, in a vote by the Pac-12 coaches.

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