EVANSTON-One day, Northwestern will learn how to close out a basketball game. Until that day, the Wildcats are going to suffer through losses like Saturday night's.

Northwestern blew an eight-point lead over the last three minutes to fall to Purdue, 61-58, after Sasha Stefanovic hit an open 3-pointer with 3.1 seconds left.

It was the Wildcats’ sixth straight loss and dropped them to 1-10 in the Big Ten play.

Purdue, meanwhile, posted its first road win in conference play.

Robbie Beran hit a 3-pointer with 12:43 left to give Northwestern what looked like a comfortable 10-point lead. The Wildcats then went cold; after hitting nine of their first 16 3s, they missed their last nine in a row.

Northwestern (6-15, 1-10 Big Ten) didn't score at all over the last 4:34 as the Boilermakers scored the last 11 points of the game to steal the victory.

Miller Kopp scored 15 points to lead all scorers, while Boo Buie scored 12 and Pat Spencer 10 for the Wildcats.

Purdue (12-10, 5-6) was led by Trevion Williams and Eric Hunter Jr., who scored 13 points apiece.

Purdue held Northwestern to a season-low 44 points in December. But the Wildcats hit that point mark with 14 minutes to go, thanks to a 3-point barrage.

The game was an ugly slog through the first half of the opening period, with the two teams scoring a combined 19 points through the first 10 minutes, when Northwestern had more turnovers (four) than baskets (three).

But then the Wildcats got hot and their shots started falling. They hit four of five from the floor, including two Kopp 3-pointers, to take a 23-17 lead with 4:13 left. They would push the lead to seven before a 3 by Isaiah Thompson brought the Boilermakers to within 29-25 at the half.

It didn’t take Purdue long to wipe that lead out in the second half, however. The Boilers outscored the Wildcats 7-2 to take a 32-31 lead.

It was 35-33 Boilers when Buie suddenly took over the game. He hit three straight 3s to go on a personal 9-0 run and give the Wildcats a 42-35 with 15:01 left. After a Beran 3 from the baseline, the Wildcats had a 10-point lead with 12:43 left.

But 3-pointers did them in. Beran missed a pair of open 3s from the baseline, while Proctor’s triple with 53.0 seconds left tied it, and Stefanovic’s won it.

Northwestern used a nifty inbounds play from Spencer to Pete Nance back to Spencer to get him an open 3 from the wing, but it bounced off the rim at the buzzer to seal the Wildcats' fate.