Boilermakers overwhelm Davidson in Charleston
Analysis ($): 3-2-1 | Wrap Video | Stat Blast
PDF: Purdue-Davidson statistics
CHARLESTON, S.C. — If there was any one sequence that put a face on Nojel Eastern's impact for Purdue thus far this season, it was clearly the following: During the 23rd-ranked Boilermakers' eventual 79-58 win over Davidson Friday night at the Charleston Classic, their sophomore guard sagged off his man into the lane to double the post. When the ball was kicked back out to Eastern's man for a three, Eastern bounced back out to deflect the shot. After the loose ball found its way into Davidson's hands, and a follow-up shot missed, Eastern pin-balled back inside to grab the defensive rebound.
Center Matt Haarms didn't immediately remember the sequence.
"But that sounds amazing," he said.
Such big words might be appropriate in describing Eastern's profound effect on Purdue's games thus far this young season.
"I just try to go out and lock down every (player) that's in front of me," Eastern said. "Obviously I'm not going to be perfect, but I just try to keep them under their average. Defense affects us. It makes us play harder. When we play well on the defensive end, I feel like that translates to offense."
Thursday night, Davidson's Jon Axel Gudmundsson put 33 points on Wichita State.
Less than 24 hours later, matched mostly against Eastern, he got only eight shots off, made only three of them, and turned the ball over five times.
"It's hard, when someone now picks you up full-court and guards you and makes you work, and you have to play back-to-back days like that," Matt Painter said of Eastern's defense on Gudmundsson. "It's difficult. ... It really started with Nojel and his ability to guard him and really slow him down. It's not just challenging shots, but don't let him get to shots. Just take him out of catching and shooting, take him out of getting angles on the drive, things like that."
That matchup win for Purdue was central to another emphatic win, driven by defense and rebounding.
The Boilermakers trailed for just a little more than a minute in earning a bid to Sunday night's Charleston Classic title game vs. Virginia Tech, thanks largely to a defensive effort to held the Wildcats under 60 and limited its two scouting-report priorities, Gudmundsson and Kellan Grady, to just 13 points between them.
And while Purdue stopped Davidson, it stopped it cold. The Boilermakers outrebounded Davidson 45-28. The Wildcats didn't score a single second-chance point.
Meanwhile, at the opposite end, All-American Carsen Edwards scored 29 on 11-of-21 shooting.
"He's just that good," Haarms said after the game, when asked about Edwards' "big night." "You call it a big night and it's just any night at the office for Carsen. He's that good."
The rest was piecemealed together, from a dominant stretch of post-scoring from Haarms, to four threes from Ryan Cline, to another onslaught of second-chance opportunities.
Purdue turned 18 offensive rebounds into 18 points.
Five of Evan Boudreaux's game-high seven rebounds came off the offensive glass.
"He just fighting harder than everyone else on the floor to get the rebound," Haarms said.
Grady Eifert and Eastern each grabbed four.
It's just effort.
"Those are the things you can control coming into a game," Edwards said. "Like our coach tells us, to fight and play harder than the other team, and that's one thing those guys do."
More to come ...
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