EVANSTON, Ill. — Thanks to No. 5 Purdue's 70-64 win at Northwestern Wednesday night, coupled with Illinois' loss at Rutgers, the Boilermakers now sit alone at the top of the Big Ten standings for the time being.

Our breakdown of the win in Evanston.

PDF: Purdue-Northwestern statistics

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Mason Gillis wasn't fazed by missing all seven of the three-pointers he took the past two games.

"I try to take the emotion out of shooting, miss or make," Gillis said. "If I make it or miss it, It doesn't really matter. Coach always tells us to take good shots and not to necessarily worry about the results."

These threes, though, mattered.

Gillis made three triples in the second half on Wednesday night, propelling Purdue to a win that was more one-sided than the final six-point margin suggested, as the Boilermakers led by 14 with three minutes left.

The sophomore forward made two threes in the first three minutes of the second half, pushing a four-point Purdue lead into double-digits.

"I knew me missing wasn't going to carry on game after game after game," Gillis said. "I took a little bit of time, focused on my form this past week, the past few days, reminded myself to slow down and focus on my shot and follow-through."

For the second game in a row, Purdue had to play a first-half through shooting that just wasn't clicking, before it came around after halftime.

Purdue was 2-of-9 in the first — only Isaiah Thompson connected — but 6-of-12 in the second, very similar to the Maryland game.

"You try to get them to not play through their offense," Painter said, "and just try to get them to be process-based and just take the shots that come your way. Just keep making the right play. It's a long game, especially for guys who play a lot.

"Any time you have a little bit of adversity you can push through and still get victories, I think it builds your team."

Also for the second straight game, Purdue played well defensively. Northwestern shot only 35 percent — not out of character for the Wildcats — and much of its scoring, especially in the first half, came off hurried shots out of disrupted offense. The Wildcats were 8-for-28 from three.

Guard Boo Buie was just 3-of-10 from the floor and just four of his 11 points came before Northwestern was down 15 late in the game. Pete Nance (12 points) got just eight shots.

Northwestern had just 53 points with three minutes to play before making a bunch of free throws — while Purdue missed a bunch — to clean up the final score.

"It's been the team buy-in," said center Zach Edey of Purdue's defense. "The guards have been really good in ball-screen defense, forcing a lot of tough twos and contested runners and pull-ups. I think we've figured out who we are defensively, our identity in our drop coverage against ball screens and things like that, little tweaks we've made throughout the season that you're now seeing on the court."

Even though this was a pretty one-sided score late in the game, this was one Purdue had to grind out, winning with defense, cashing in at the foul line — before the last two minutes at least — and timely shooting.

This was the Boilermakers' eighth game in 21 days. Thursday will be their first day off since Jan. 24.

"It was really tough," said Edey, who led Purdue with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting and heroically played 16 first-half minutes due to Trevion Williams' foul trouble. "You felt in some games like you had no legs, like you just needed to push through but it didn't happen, that there were certain things you just couldn't do at times. Sprinting the floor, things like that. It's really tough when you're playing on one day's rest or two day's rest, playing a game every three days for like a month."

Purdue won a road game Wednesday night and moved into first place in the Big Ten by itself.

But the topic that really resonated with the Boilermakers after the game was that day off.

It's been more than three weeks. Purdue went 7-1 since that last day off.

"Nothing," guard Eric Hunter said, when asked of his plans for Thursday. "I might get some treatment, but nothing. I'll be in my room.

"Netflix, eating ... that's about it."

Purdue just needed to get through this one and get home unscathed.

A day off won't transform the Boilermakers but it's been a light at the end of a pretty challenging tunnel. That Purdue plowed through the tail end of this stretch and won games without things going perfectly was exactly the sort of survival instinct a championship team needs to exhibit.

Purdue's energy to start the game defensively was excellent and as positive a sign as anything else that could have come from this game.

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