Breakdown: Purdue's loss at Maryland

PDF: Purdue-Maryland statistics

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That's this year's Big Ten for you, a league where everyone's good and few are better than most, and games are bound to be tightly contested ones that come down to that one play, that one shot, that one call, that one bounce, whatever it may be.

At Michigan State and Ohio State not all that long ago, those elements bounced the Boilermakers' way.

Tuesday night, at Maryland, they went the direction of the Terrapins, who closed on a six-point run to upend the newly 24th-ranked Boilermakers, 61-60, snapping their three-game road winning streak.

"You feel like a million bucks when you make one more play," Purdue coach Matt Painter said, "and you feel terrible when they make one more play."

Last time these two teams played, Purdue felt great thanks in large part to Maryland missing free throws.

This time, Maryland made those free throws.

Purdue led 60-59 when the Terps called timeout with 16.6 seconds left, a Boilermaker lead that stood at 56-49 with just 3:44 to play whittled down to the slimmest of margins.

Coming out of the huddle, Maryland worked Purdue big man Trevion Williams into a switch onto guard Eric Ayala. The Boilermaker big man guarded Ayala well, forcing him into a tough shot around the basket that missed. But with one of the Big Ten's most effective rebounders busy defending, the middle of the lane opened for Ayala to rebound his own miss and draw a foul.

"I feel like I guarded it pretty well," Williams said. "We just had to get one more rebound. We needed that possession. We needed that rebound. We got called for that foul. Everything doesn't always go your way. You have to find a way to get through it."

His two free throws capped the 6-0 run Maryland closed the game with, doing to Purdue more or less what Purdue had previously done to Michigan State and Ohio State at their places.

And Maryland did to Purdue what Purdue just did to Minnesota, missing 11 of 12 three-pointers before halftime, then making 6-of-8 to start the second and finishing the half 8-of-13.

In a matchup of two distinctly different teams, the matchup battle was essentially a draw — both dynamics were productive — but Maryland's small-ball managed one more point than the Boilermakers' post-driven style.

"I think they got in a rhythm in what they were doing on offense," Purdue guard Isaiah Thompson said of Maryland's second-half shooting, "doing a lot of iso ball off pick-and-rolls and we were switching five ways most of the second half. ... They were just trying to create off that."

Williams led Purdue with 23 points and 11 rebounds and freshman Jaden Ivey scored 14, nine of them in game's final seven minutes.

But the Boilermakers came up empty on their final two full possessions, Ivey missing a three with the shot clock dwindling, then a fallaway jumper next time down.

"I got to my spots and I couldn't convert," Ivey said. "That's on me."

Purdue's season-long albatross again: Turnovers.

As has been its way this season, the Boilermakers were turnover-riddled early but turned things around at halftime, not that the damage wasn't done.

Of Purdue's 15 turnovers, 11 came in the first half, during which Purdue had numerous opportunities to build a robust lead while the Terps struggled mightily to score.

"We needed that one big play, that one big shot, to get it to three possessions," Painter said, "but give Maryland credit. They played well."

The Boilermakers settled for just a three-point lead at halftime, 27-24.

Maryland's three-point shooting was the difference in the end, but it may not have mattered had the Boilermakers had more to show for their first-half possessions.

The Terps scored eight points off turnovers and 11 fast break points (to just one for Purdue), many of those breaks coming off turnovers.

Or overly difficult shots.

"We kept getting stuck and taking tough shots," Painter said. "We needed those possessions."

Maryland's first three field goals of the game came off run-outs, two off turnovers and one off a long rebound.

Purdue had this game a couple of times, first up seven — its largest lead — with 3:44 left, when Trevion Williams' dunk off Jaden Ivey's entry capped a 9-1 Purdue run, and then when an Eric Hunter jumper and two Ivey free throws gave the Boilermakers separate five-point leads.

"It all came down to stops," Ivey said. "If we could've gotten a couple stops, we'd have won this game by five at least."

They couldn't.

Maryland answered every Purdue score, then got stops of its own.

But it was Williams and Ivey who put the Boilermakers in position to run their road winning streak to four.

Hunter's jumper at 2:22 — his lone field goal of the game, which Ivey assisted on — were the only points scored by anyone else in the final seven minutes.

Ivey got to the basket on three separate occasions for stylish finishes at the most opportune times, on at least one occasion taking heavy contact and hitting the floor hard.

The Purdue freshman has been seen holding his wrist often the past two games, but said he's playing at full strength.

"I get banged up a lot," Ivey said. "I guess there's this thing where the refs don't call fouls for freshmen. I feel like no one can guard me on the court and I can get to the basket with ease and I get those calls that they're there, but I don't know why they're not called. But, hey, that happens. We're not going to get calls on the road. I just tried to play through it, but it was kind of frustrating I didn't get some of those calls."

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