2024 NCAA Tournament: Purdue 106, Utah State 67

Purdue is back in the Sweet 16 and Zach Edey continues to flex his muscles in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

After scoring 30 points and pulling down 21 rebounds against Grambling State in round 1 Friday night the soon to be two-time National Player of the Year had 23 points and 14 rebounds as Purdue rolled to the Sweet 16 with a 106-67 win over Utah State.

Trey Kaufman-Renn was also instrumental with 18 points and eight rebounds as the Boilermakers were thoroughly dominant in the paint.

The margin of victory for Purdue tied the school record in an NCAA Tournament game, matching a 95-56 win over Delaware in 1998. The 106 points also established a new record for points scored in a tournament game by Purdue.

After a strong second half on Friday night against Grambling State Trey Kaufman-Renn continued his excellent run of play to start things off for Purdue. He scored Purdue's first eight points, twice converting on and-1 opportunities, to give teh Boilermakers an 8-6 lead at the first media stoppage. Purdue got the Aggies into foul trouble early with four fouls in the first four minutes, three drawn by Kaufman-Renn.

Consecutive threes by Ian Martinez gave Utah State a 14-10 lead before Braden Smith answered with a three. The Aggies led 17-15 at the second media stop and by that point Martinez already had 11 points.

Utah State led 24-23 with just over 8 minutes to play when Camden Heide started a big run with a rebound dunk. That sparked a 13-0 run where Edey and Kaufman-Renn both scored inside and Fletcher Loyer converted a pair at the line. Myles Colvin connected on a three with 4:10 left in the half to give Purdue a 36-24 lead and force an Aggie timeout.

Purdue opened up a 49-33 halftime lead thanks to Edey's dominance and a long Lance Jones three-pointer as time expired in the half. Edey finished the first half with 21 points and and 11 rebounds, while Utah State had a stretch of seven minutes without a field goal. Overall Purdue had a 26-9 run after trailing 24-23 with 8:17 left in the half.

The run continued in the second half as Purdue needed just 81 seconds for a 7-0 run and force another timeout. Jones got the scoring started with a three-pointer before Kaufman-Renn got a layup. Jones then found Kaufman-Renn with a nifty pass on the break for a dunk to make it 56-33. Purdue eventually pushed the lead to 25 at 64-39 with 15:24 left.

Purdue built a lead as large as 41 points before letting off the gas in the final minutes. Loyer finished with 15 points while Heide had 10 off the bench.

The victory establishes a new single-season wins record of 31 for Purdue, and there is a great chance to add to that next week as the Boilermakers get a rematch with Gonzaga. Purdue has defeated the Bulldogs in each of the last two seasons, including a 73-63 win on November 20th in Hawaii.

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