Breakdown: Purdue's loss to No. 13 Penn State

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Penn State did to Purdue what Purdue so often does to everyone else in Mackey Arena.

Following a loss that was more one-sided than the final 12-point margin may suggest — Penn State led by twice as many with 14 minutes left — Matt Painter lamented his team's effort, that he didn't view it as exceeding that of its opponent.

"You can write all you want about guarding (Penn State star) Lamar Stevens," Painter said of his pre-game prep work, "but if you don't play harder than those guys, you're not going to beat them."

But this game was most directly decided by shooting.

It's often oversimplification to say that one team beat the other because it shot better.

This was not one of those times.

Penn State, a 33.8-percent three-point shooting team in Big Ten play that came in averaging seven-and-a-half made triples per game, was 14-of-26.

It made threes early, five of its first seven, taking visitors' Mackey Arena danger zone and waltzing right through it, on its way to a lead that peaked at 14 in the final 30 seconds of the first half.

"I've watched every team that's come in here, and it's been a massacre by the first media timeout," Penn State coach Pat Chambers said, referring to his message to his team of the importance of the first four minutes.

What Penn State did to Purdue amounted to the reverse of what the Boilermakers did to Iowa last time the Boilermakers played In Mackey Arena. Purdue scored 104 in that game, paced by blistering shooting.

Tonight, not so much.

While Penn State — playing without its second-leading scorer and best shooter, Myeron Jones — rode its shooting surge, Purdue fizzled, missing its first nine threes and finishing 4-of-17.

Strong shooting has been a hallmark of the Boilermakers' home success this season. Tuesday night, it betrayed it, as the script was flipped.

"It felt like the roles were switched," Purdue guard Eric Hunter said. "Usually when people come here we play harder than them and shoot the ball better. They just outplayed us, outworked us tonight."

Penn State's hot shooting did extend to the second half, but it was big man Mike Watkins, who scored a team-high 19 points, who carried the Lions to the 13-2 second-half-opening run that pushed the Lions' lead all the way up to 24 with 14 minutes remaining.

From there, Purdue did make a run.

It got within seven points with 54 seconds left. Whether that was Purdue simply running out of time or Penn State having put the Boilermakers into too deep a pit is an eye-of-the-beholder sort of thing. Penn State iced the game at the foul line.

Shooting.

Again, this was an outlier shooting game for Penn State, but one Purdue says it helped along.

"I felt like we were a step slow," Jahaad Proctor said. "We were doing what we normally do, taking care of our defensive assignments, but we weren't coming out and running them off the line. As shooters, we know that once you make a few and the team starts to get going ... it's kind of contagious.

"Some people who we didn't necessarily think were knock-down three-point shooters, they ended up making some and we didn't really (stop them) and at that point, the bucket was kind of big for them."

Freshman Seth Lundy made 6-of-9 threes — two in the first five minutes — and scored 18 points. Myles Dread was 4-of-5 and Izaiah Brockington 2-of-3.

Their respective percentages this season prior to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday night: 36.7, 27.9 and 25.0 percent.

This was about Purdue's shooting too, obviously.

Not only did the Boilermakers struggle at home in areas where they often thrive, but they did have several open threes throughout the game in moments where opportunities seemed to be there to mount potentially game-changing runs.

Missed 'em all.

As much as Penn State's shooting drove this game, Mike Watkins' play on the interior put it away.

The Nittany Lion big man, accustomed to being in foul trouble against Purdue historically, as Chambers noted after the game, scored eight points during the Lions' run to open the second half, building the berth that Purdue made a run at late, but could never overcome.

Watkins scored around the basket, making 9-of-12 shots, while Purdue missed a number of point-blank looks at the rim by several different players throughout the game.

Watkins was 9-of-12 from the floor. Purdue's centers, Trevion Williams and Matt Haarms, were a combined 9-of-20, 2-of-8 from Haarms.

It means that Purdue can't take Mackey Arena's comforts for granted. Not to say that it did, but this was Illinois all over again when the Boilermakers had been playing well enough lately to suggest that something closer to Virginia-Michigan State-Wisconsin-Iowa might be the more likely outcome.

Just when Purdue looked like it had turned a corner, this.

But, a few things ought to be kept in mind.

For one, Penn State is really good.

This isn't just about making the NCAA Tournament for the Nittany Lions, but winning the Big Ten.

And 14 threes are a lot of threes.

This might have just been one of those nights in a lot of ways, and such is the nature of sports, especially college basketball.

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