Despite Carsen Edwards' 40, Purdue falls at Texas
Analysis ($): 3-2-1 | Wrap Video | Stat Blast
AUSTIN, Texas — Purdue got 40 points from its All-American, Carsen Edwards, Sunday.
It turned the ball over just six times, on the road, and forced one of college basketball's worst jump-shooting teams this season to live and die with jumpers.
And, it lost, 72-68 at Texas, letting slip another opportunity for a marquee road win in non-conference play.
Texas came into Sunday's game shooting just 29 percent collectively from three-point range.
But with Purdue prioritizing dribble containment, the Longhorns made 11 of 25 from long range and 15-of-16 at the foul line, getting fat off the one-and-one, especially. Texas was 11-of-12 in one-and-one foul-shooting situations.
It didn't miss one until just 21 seconds remained, which set up a golden opportunity for Purdue, which trailed by two at the time.
But after Texas double-teamed the ball out of Carsen Edwards' hot hand, the ball found its way to Aaron Wheeler in the corner in front of Purdue's bench. Wheeler drove, but collided with Jaxson Hayes, who was spun around after getting tangled up with center Matt Haarms. Upon running into Hayes, Wheeler lost the ball out of bounds. No foul was called.
"I thought it was a pretty easy (blocking) call," Matt Painter said.
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Purdue was in position for that no-call to matter because of Edwards, who said this was just like any other game for him. The Houston area native called Texas his "dream school" from his youth this week. Texas didn't recruit him.
You can bet it wished Sunday that it had.
Edwards was 15-of-26 from the floor, 7-of-14 from three, 3-of-3 from the foul line and finished with three assists against just one turnover.
In short, he was brilliant.
"I just wanted to win," Edwards said afterward. "If I'd had a bad performance and we won, that would sit better with me."
Problem was, no other Boilermaker scored more than Haarms' 10.
Aside from Edwards, Purdue was 2-of-18 from three-point range.
"We just had some shots that we normally make that just didn't go in for us, and we had some good looks on some of them," Edwards said. "... It was just a tough game for us, a tough loss for us. We had some shots that didn't fall for us, and they made shots."
Texas sought to take away second-leading scorer Ryan Cline, Coach Shaka Smart said afterward. Whether its defense directly did so or not can be debated, but Cline — coming off an 0-for-6 game vs. Maryland — was just 1-of-9 from three.
"We have to help Carsen out," Cline said, "but obviously shots weren't falling today."
Texas' were.
Purdue set up its defense to protect the paint, Painter said.
The Longhorns took advantage, finding open shooters throughout the game, particularly in the corners.
"We wanted to do a good job keeping the ball in front of us," Painter said, "and we thought that would help us in our rotations or limit our rotations."
And they made them.
Point guard Matt Coleman was the game's most influential figure among those players who didn't score 40 points.
He finished with 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting, 3-of-5 from three, along with two second-half assists that set up dunks for big men. Coleman was 10-of-36 on the season coming in, but his threes at 5:56 — after Purdue had taken a two-point lead following a 7-0 Carsen Edwards run — and 2:25 — when Texas was up two — went a long way in deciding this game.
"I feel like we got a lot of shots we wanted," Cline said, "but it was (about) getting stops late and having better energy."
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