Breakdown: Purdue's win over #5 Virginia
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Purdue scored one of its biggest non-conference wins in Mackey Arena history Wednesday night, beating fifth-ranked Virginia 69-40 In the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
WHAT HAPPENED
Matt Painter told his players that against Virginia's vaunted defense, they had to shoot their first chance to score might be their only chance.
"If you're open, shoot it," sophomore Sasha Stefanovic said. "Get yours."
In his first college start — Painter swapped out Nojel Eastern for Stefanovic in the starting five to field more shooting punch, as well as starting both his big men together — Stefanovic got his, so to speak, right away, making three early threes on as many tries, en route to making six in the game and leading the Boilermakers with 20 points.
"I was just trying to be aggressive," Stefanovic said. "Last week at the tournament in Florida I thought I played pretty poorly. I wasn't really aggressive, wasn't really ready. ... I just wanted to come out and have a lot of energy to get us going."
And as if jump-shooting was contagious, once Stefanovic had gotten going, so did everyone else.
Purdue rained jumpers on the Cavaliers all night, to the tune of 52-percent three-point shooting and a litany of mid-range jumpers made by a team that's not shot particularly well this season.
Stefanovic set a tone in more ways than one.
"I want to thank Sash for that," senior Jahaad Proctor joked.
Proctor made mid-range jumpers and turnarounds, Eric Hunter did the same and Aaron Wheeler made his first three off the bench, and before you knew it, Purdue was riding a 12-0 late-half run, while holding UVA scoreless for nearly 10 minutes, building a lead that stood at 32-17 at the half. Considering Virginia's low-scoring, low-tempo makeup, that 15-point lead may as well have been doubled.
Virginia found a pulse offensively toward the end of the first half and into the second, but the avalanche Stefanovic started never really let up.
Stefanovic made another three as soon as the Cavaliers cut it to 13 to start the second half, then Eric Hunter made a transition three after forcing one of Virginia's uncharacteristic 16 turnovers, then canned a transition three. Shortly thereafter, Hunter beat the shot clock with another triple and the rout was officially on for good.
WHY IT HAPPENED
Purdue's offensive awakening against college basketball's gold standard for defense was one thing.
Its defense was another.
Granted, this Virginia team lost so much from last season's title-winning team that it was barely recognizable, and the loss of offensive firepower in particular was considerable.
Still, Purdue is establishing itself as a pretty stout defensive team and it certainly was tonight.
"They took whatever they wanted away from us defensively," UVA coach Tony Bennett said, "and then they got whatever they wanted offensively."
Virginia shot less than 32 percent in the decisive first half and committed an unsightly and uncharacteristic 16 turnovers, leading to 15 Purdue points, two of them with under seven minutes to play when Nojel Eastern jumped a pass for a pick-six layup, shortly after Virginia trailed by only 15. Rarely does Virginia beat itself in such a way.
But Purdue played this game differently, too.
Seeking offensive "punch," Painter inserted Stefanovic into the starting five in place of defensive stalwart Eastern.
Seeking literal "punch," Trevion Williams started alongside fellow center Matt Haarms, which looked shaky there in the early going as Virginia's bigs made early jumpers over each of them, but obviously that move worked.
The box score tells only a portion of the story of Williams' impact — six points, seven rebounds — but his physical demeanor, effort and tenacity clearly helped Purdue, alongside Haarms, who finished with 11 points, five rebounds and three assists and affected this game perhaps most by making both of his three-point attempt.
"If I'm open," Haarms said of his standard this season for when to shoot threes, "I shoot it."
And that was Purdue's standard overall against the Cavaliers, with great success.
WHO MADE IT HAPPEN
Both big men played well for Purdue, but this came down to its shooting.
Stefanovic was the clear MVP of this game, if one had to be chosen, but Proctor and Hunter each experienced eureka moments of their own with their jump-shooting, including difficult contested jumpers at times from both.
Proctor scored 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting, with four steals; Hunter added 10 points on five shots, with five rebounds, four assists and two steals.
WHAT IT MEANS
There was no revenge here for Purdue following its memorable loss to Virginia on the doorstep of the Final Four last season.
These two teams are entirely different.
Still, this was obviously a huge win for Purdue, not just in magnitude but in terms of potential momentum.
Is Virginia really a top-five team in the wake of all it lost from last season? Probably not, and the remainder of the season probably will bear that out.
But they're still Virginia as college basketball knows Virginia from a defensive perspective, and Purdue hasn't been quite right offensively to this point, its growth process there being gradual thus far.
To have just erupted — and yes, 69 points against Virginia qualifies as such — against this team could get the ball rolling for a group that lost a few close games, and remedied the issue on this night by making certain the game wasn't even remotely close.
It was a dominant performance, a résumé win and a memorable night for those in Mackey Arena.
"This is a great win for us," Haarms said, "but it can't end here. It (has to be) the start of something. We have to turn the corner and show we've learned those losses. Tonight was a great start, but if it doesn't continue this is meaningless. We have to continue playing well, we have to continue guarding well.
"If we do that, this can be a great statement win for us."
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