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PDF: Purdue-Appalachian State statistics
CHARLESTON, S.C. — This 23rd-ranked Purdue team hasn't played a whole lot together in its current form, just three games and 120 minutes now, but this didn't look like a third game.
From its offensive execution to its defensive intensity during Thursday's 92-70 rout of Appalachian State at the Charleston Classic, the Boilermakers looked advanced.
The Boilermakers turned the Mountaineers up-side down from outset with their defensive pressure, offering a glimpse, perhaps, of what this new-look group might be capable of in that area.
Its focus on high-scoring App State guards Justin Forrest and Ronshad Shabazz paid off.
Forrest's 14 points came off 2-of-8 shooting and Shabazz's nine points and five assists came at the cost of six turnovers.
“We did a good job helping, a good job taking up their space and not letting them get in a rhythm shooting the basketball," Coach Matt Painter said. "When they did get angles to drive, we did a good job being there to help and getting it corralled.”
It was a rout from the jump, as Purdue raced to a 15-3 lead and led by double-figures for the game's final 36-and-a-half minutes. The Mountaineers got within 10 a few times, but Purdue re-asserted itself immediately thereafter each time.
“I was surprised with how hard we were playing,” center Matt Haarms said of the defensive start. “It felt like we were executing really well, but then I came out (of the game) and it looked like we were playing at a level I haven’t really seen before this season. I think that really speaks to what we can be defensively.”
Defense led to offense, as the Boilermakers' razor-sharp transition offense took center stage. Twenty-one Purdue points came off App State's 15 turnovers and 14 points, at least officially, came in transition.
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And the offensive glass, again.
Purdue doesn't necessarily profile as a dominant rebounding team, and no one would credibly call it one, but it has certainly been productive in the early stages of this season.
The Boilermakers' 11 offensive rebounds merely matched Appalachian State's total, but it wasn't the volume, but rather the impact.
Purdue turned those 11 offensive boards into 22 points.
Early in the first half, Ryan Cline drilled a three-pointer off an offensive rebound tapped out by Grady Eifert; later in the first half, he connected again after Aaron Wheeler swooped in for an offensive rebound, then found Carsen Edwards, who set Cline up on the wing.
“It’s just demoralizing for the other team," Cline said. "You work your butt off (to get a stop) and then you can’t get the rebound and working your butt off was for nothing now.”
Cline scored 21 points. He made 8-of-13 shots, as the Boilermakers shot nearly 55 percent for the game.
Carsen Edwards, on a tear to begin his junior season at Purdue, scored 25.
Edwards, who was 9-of-16 from the floor, was a terror in transition, but also in raining a number of difficult three-pointers.
“When he makes one of those, it’s, ‘Hey, this is his time right now,’ the time he’s really got it going," Haarms said, "and you best know the other team’s in trouble because every time he touches the ball, sirens are going to have to go off for them and they’re going to have to over-react to him and that’s going to make for open shots for us and create offense for us, because he’s such an amazing player and doing so well (then).”
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