Nojel Eastern too much for Indiana to handle in Purdue's rivalry win

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Purdue recruited Nojel Eastern a few years back with hopes of him becoming an impact player for the Boilermakers.

Maybe not in any one particular element more than others, or any one position primarily, but Matt Painter and his staff saw in his versatility the potential that he could affect games all across the board.

At no point in the sophomore's season-and-a-half at Purdue has that impact been felt more than it was on Saturday afternoon in Mackey Arena, as Eastern stood as the driving force behind the Boilermakers' 70-55 handling of arch-rival and 25th-ranked Indiana, Purdue's eighth win out of the past nine games vs. IU.

It seems like these rivalry games always seem to have a surprise standout, and while Eastern is a key player for Purdue anyway, and thus maybe not a surprise, per se, he was the singular difference, if there was one.

Indiana star freshman Romeo Langford came in averaging nearly 19 points per game and shooting 50-plus-percent from the floor.

He scored four. Of his 12 shots, he missed 10.

Eastern wasn't alone in holding the lottery-pick-to-be down — foul trouble helped, as did the many other Boilermakers who contributed to the effort — but he was the face of it, a résumé sort of game for a player who has to be considered a viable Defensive Player-of-the-Year candidate in the Big Ten.

Langford's inability to produce was central in an injury-riddled IU team failing to crack 30 in either half and finishing with one of its lowest point totals of the season. The Hoosiers did themselves no favors by shooting 7-of-18 at the foul line. Langford was 0-for-4.

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But again, the multi-pronged impact potential Purdue saw in Eastern years ago very much materialized on this day.

From his point guard position, Eastern grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds, half of his double-double line.

Not exactly known for his scoring, the sophomore looked as aggressive as he's ever been looking for his own offense in the first half, making four of six shots and scoring all 10 of his points in the final 12 minutes before halftime.

"I just let the game come to me," Eastern said. "We're known for having shooters on the court, so when (defenses) take that away, I use that opportunity. When I see an open lane to the paint, I try to take it, spread the defense out, play within myself and whatever I see, take it and continue to play an all-around game."

Eastern's scoring, though, was important scoring.

Purdue had surged to a quick 7-0 lead to start the game, then led by as many as nine, but Indiana rallied to hold a 24-21 lead with 5:20 left before halftime.

After Carsen Edwards — he led Purdue with 20 points, along with season-best-tying seven assists — made two free throws, Eastern scored on a runner, then stripped Langford on defense, triggering the fast break that led to Edwards passing off to Aaron Wheeler for a transition dunk. A few series later, Eastern cut baseline and Edwards found him for another bucket, which was followed by another scoring drive for Eastern with 1:08 left, as the Boilermakers closed the half on a 12-2 run. IU didn't score over the half's final 3:36.

That momentum endured the half.

After a 1-of-9 three-point shooting half before halftime, Purdue made three of its first four in the second, and the rout was on, as the hosts pushed their lead to as much as 19.

Eastern didn't score in the second half. It didn't matter.

In the first half, as he put it, he took what was there.

For the game, it wasn't just what Eastern took, but what he took away, as the lead defender on Langford, who endured the worst game of his young college career, one in which the normally poised young guard seemed affected, by Purdue's defense, by Mackey Arena animosity, whatever it may have been. He missed all four of his free throws, and when an open three came his way in transition in the second half, it missed everything.

When Langford did generate opportunities for himself, Purdue defended well collectively.

It had crafted its game plan around "loading the box up," as Archie Miller put it, to crowding the lane.

"We wanted to give a lot of attention to Langford and to (Juwan) Morgan," Painter said. "We didn't want to leave people wide open, but we wanted to try to clog up the driving lanes as best we could."

When Langford did find space, there was Aaron Wheeler to block his shot, or Matt Haarms to pin it against the backboard.

"We had a great guy guarding him," said Haarms, who gave Purdue 12 points, four rebounds, four assists and a pair of blocks in 24-and-a-half minutes off the bench, "the best defensive guard in the Big Ten guarding him. But then we were all focused on knowing where he was at all times and knowing where our help was. And then on the offensive end, I think we just did a really good job attacking him."

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