Breakdown: Purdue's win over Florida State

Second-ranked Boilermakers looked as formidable as ever on Tuesday night, blowing out Florida State 93-65 as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

Our breakdown.

PDF: Purdue-Florida State stats

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Florida State is an excellent defensive program, one of the toughest and most tenacious and systematically unique programs in college basketball.

And the Boilermakers did face more resistance offensively than they have in probably any other game this season.

Didn't matter.

They scored anyway, again and again and again.

This was the sixth time in seven games that Purdue has topped 90 points. But this wasn't Wright State or Indiana State; it was Florida State. Big difference.

Matt Painter's team shot 59 percent for the game, made nearly half its threes (again) and averaged a staggering 1.431 points per possession.

Again, against Florida State.

It was a display that left FSU coach Leonard Hamilton calling Purdue "the most complete team I've coached against in quite a while."

Purdue did struggle at times with its initial offense against Florida State's five-way switching and the bracketing the Seminoles did in the post. More than anything, Purdue struggled at times with its own periodic sloppiness.

Again, it didn't matter. None of it.

When shots missed, Purdue so often followed them, to the tune of 18 second-chance points. If it wasn't Caleb Furst flying in for an offensive rebound, it was Mason Gillis, or Zach Edey just towering over Florida State in a way Florida State is not normally towered over. The Seminoles were down their two biggest centers.

When the Boilermaker halfcourt offense middled, they made plays to beat the shot clock.

Jaden Ivey put on a show, making his first four three-pointers en route to scoring 18 points. His assist total (two) doesn't tell the story of the effect he had breaking down Florida State's defense off the dribble.

Saddled with first-half foul trouble and clearly a marked man on Florida State's scouting report, Sasha Stefanovic didn't make a shot until midway through the second half; in the meantime, Brandon Newman made important jumpers at key moments and finished with 13 points off the bench.

"He was great," Painter said. "We want him to be aggressive and shoot the basketball.

"He really kept us afloat offensively when Sasha was out."

On a quiet night for Purdue's two pillars, Edey and Trevion Williams still combined for 20 points on 10-of-16 shooting and 12 rebounds.

When Stefanovic finally got loose — credit Ethan Morton's passing and awareness during a stretch where things were getting dicey for Purdue — he uncorked one of those bursts that have so often turned games upside-down. Moments after Newman answered a Caleb Mills three that brought FSU within just eight points with still nearly 15 minutes to play, Stefanovic nailed three threes in roughly two-and-a-half minutes.

Purdue turned the ball over more than it would have liked, 13 of them. It flubbed two relatively routine passes that would have led to layups or dunks, and Ivey missed on a breakaway dunk.

And the Boilermakers still scored 93.

This was Purdue's offensive power on full display.

"It comes down to the hard work we put in in practice," Ivey said. "We take what the coaches tell us and we buy in, we're ready and we (want to) execute it perfectly. If we can do that, I think we can be a really good team, which we already are. We have to stick to the game plan."

Purdue never trailed, as Ivey's early shooting tear set the Boilermakers off on the right foot en route to a 48-32 halftime lead, which grew to 18 when Sasha Stefanovic hit Zach Edey on a lob to open the second half.

There were some modestly tense moments to come, however.

Caleb Mills' three-pointer — he scored a game-high 22 — with 14:43 left brought the Seminoles within just eight.

But Newman responded with a transition three from right in front of the Purdue bench. Assist: Ethan Morton.

Shortly thereafter, Morton surveyed the defense from left wing, looked inside, drawing back-side help onto Zach Edey and off Stefanovic, then whipped the ball cross-court to Stefanovic for his first of three quick threes that blew the game open.

Purdue led by as many as 28 the rest of the way.

"(Purdue) has so many weapons," Hamilton said. "You can take certain things away from them, but it's extremely challenging to keep five guys from getting a good look. Every one of those guys who had an open look made us pay.

"That's a team that's confident and poised and playing in rhythm. ... Sometimes you have to call it what it is: This is a team that has Final Four written all over it."

This was the first of five straight high-major games for Purdue, an important résumé stretch that'll include the first two Big Ten games.

The Boilermakers couldn't have started it off much better. No matter how short-handed FSU might have been, this was a valuable test for Purdue and it passed with ease.

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