PDF: Purdue-Fullerton statistics
More: Thompson's extra work on shot pays off | Purdue overcomes layover; notebook | Video: Purdue reacts to win
DETROIT — It was far from consequential toward the ultimate outcome but if there’s one play that put a face on Purdue’s 74-48 NCAA Tournament-opening win over Cal State Fullerton Friday, it was this …
With the Boilermakers up 24 with six minutes and change to play out, Vincent Edwards turned the ball over, setting up an easy pick-six bucket for Jamal Smith.
Nope.
Purdue’s senior forward turned and ran with Smith as he closed on the basket, then took off — off his bad ankle, no less — to swat the shot.
“I was more upset that I turned the ball over,” Edwards said. “… It’s about playing ’til there’s zero left on the clock. I just kept playing because you never know what can happen in this tournament.”
The two-dozen-point lead held, and at the end of the day Edwards’ play stood as one of the faces of a game in which the Boilermakers reversed course considerably from some of their defensive struggles of late.
Purdue’s guards led an effort that held Cal State Fullerton to 36-percent shooting and fewer than 50 points.
Titan leading scorer Kyle Allman’s numbers — 21 points, 8-of-16 shooting — were boosted considerably by garbage time, but was 3-of-8 with three turnovers in the first half, with a banked-in three and a breakaway bucket off a turnover accounting for most of his nine points. And for the game, he shot just five free throws, well below his best-in-the-game pace.
Wing man Khalil Ahmad was 4-of-12 with three turnovers.
The Boilermakers made things very difficult for a team that didn’t look like it was accustomed to things being so difficult.
Purdue forced Fullerton to set up offensively further out than it would have preferred, challenged basic passes and forced 17 turnovers, which the Boilermakers turned into 19 points.
On a day in which Purdue shot only 39 percent, the Boilermakers decidedly won the garbage-point columns.
In addition to the 19 points off turnovers, the Boilermakers flipped the script from an offensive rebounding perspective, allowing just five and turning 12 of its own into 10 points, maybe more depending on how official scorers handled it.
But this one was won with defense more than anything.
“Our guys competed and when they were able to get downhill out of some ball-screen action,” assistant coach Steve Lutz said, “our guys were able to stay with the play and contest them.
“And we limited their transitions, so they weren’t able to get any easy baskets there, and that was probably the biggest key.”
And even when Purdue did give up transition chances, it had an answer, as Edwards’ play with a half dozen minutes left, up two dozen, showed.
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