Purdue is just one game away from 40 straight non-conference wins in the regular season after getting the best of Alabama, 87-78


Halfway through the second half, it looked like Alabama was gonna revenge its loss last year to Purdue in Toronto. Instead, a true freshman guard had his first moment in Mackey Arena.

After Alabama took its biggest lead of the game, 65-59, near the halfway point of the second half, Trey Kaufman-Renn recieved a bounce pass from Braden Smith and got a floater to fall. The next play, Kaufman-Ren returned the flavor, finding Smith cutting to the hoop and the lay up cut the game to two.


Cue CJ Cox.


The freshman coming off the bench dribbled left around a Trey Kaufman-Renn screen. With his defender on him, Cox pulled up quickly, and knocked down the three-pointer and drew the whistle. On the ensuing possession, Mark Sears looked like he was going to answer with a finish at the rim, but Myles Colvin got his hand on the ball and blocked it off the glass.


CJ Cox would knock down his second three, nearly identical to the first by from the other wing. Then he would knock down a third, giving Purdue a 72-65 lead with 8:17 to play and forcing Alabama coach Nate Oats to call a timeout.


The true freshmen would close out a 13-0 Purdue run that took just over 2 minutes of game time.


Alabama wouldn't go away. As it had most the day, it dominated the offensive glass. An offensive rebound led to a Latrell Wrightsell Jr. 3 to cut the game to 72-68. Then Trey Kaufman-Renn went work, scoring inside. Alabama would respond with another offensive rebound and three for Whitesell, but it wasn't enough to counter Kaufman-Renn's dominance down load. Kaufman-Renn would get two more hook shots to go on his way to 26 points to lead all scorers.


A Braden Smith steal on Mark Sears would seal the game for Purdue with around two minutes to play and a three possession lead.

Purdue did a good job all night on Alabama's star. Sears had just 15 points on 5 of 15 shooting. As promised, the job of guarding Sears was spread between multiple Purdue defenders including Gicarri Harris, Myles Colvin, and CJ Cox.


Braden Smith won this battle of the country's two best point guards with an all-around game that featured a lot of mid-range pull ups, and even more drop offs inside to his big man. Smith had 17 points, 5 rebounds, and 10 assists.


Matt Painter will be most pleased with Smith about the way he protected the ball. Smith had just one turnover on the game and Purdue as a team had just 3 turnovers.


Fletcher Loyer finished another half with a buzzer beater, knocking down a three to give Purdue the lead heading into the half. Loyer finished with 17 points on 9 shot attempts.