CHICAGO (WISH) — The No. 18 Purdue Boilermakers are heading to the Big Ten Tournament championship game after holding off a late surge by UCLA, beating the Bruins 73-66 Saturday afternoon. The Boilers led 34-27 at halftime and came back from the break red hot. Senior guard Fletcher Loyer op ened the second half with back-to-back threes. Loyer finished with 14 points. Senior center Oscar Cluff led Purdue with 17 points and 14 rebounds. Despite being up by 10 with 8:35 left, the Bruins put together a 14-4 run over the next six minutes to tie the game. Purdue answered with three straight buckets to push the lead back to six. Boilers senior guard Braden Smith finished the game with nine assists. Smith now holds the Big Ten Tournament record with 35 for the week. He also is just the second player in NCAA history to record at least 300 assists in two different seasons. Avery Johnson did it for Southern in 1987 and 1988. Purdue now faces No. 3 and 1-seed Michigan for the Big Ten Tournament hardware. The championship game is scheduled to tip off at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Sunday in Chicago’s United Center. ...read more read less