12/15/2018 basketball Edit

Loss to Notre Dame in Indy leaves Purdue still searching for answers

Brian Neubert • BoilerUpload

GoldandBlack.com staff

Analysis ($): 3-2-1 | Wrap Video | Stat Blast

INDIANAPOLIS — Purdue’s last chance for a meaningful non-conference victory came and went Saturday afternoon in an 88-80 Crossroads Classic loss to Notre Dame, the back-handed silver lining to this one being that at least the Boilermakers weren’t left lamenting the so-very-close nature of their prior losses in such games.

The Irish won by eight, but led by 15 with seven-and-a-half minutes left to play, keeping the Boilermakers at arm’s length for the majority of the afternoon after using a 26-8 first-half run to turn a 10-4 Purdue lead into a robust Irish cushion.

The final score was prettied up on Purdue’s end by its refusal to go quietly, thanks in part to seldom-used freshman Trevion Williams, who scored 10 points in nine-and-a-half minutes to finish the game, keeping things respectable.

Otherwise, there was no near miss to this one, not like Virginia Tech or Texas or especially Florida State.

Notre Dame won in a decisive manner, doing so by making 52 percent of its shots and, as has been Purdue opponents’ way of late, outperforming its body of work to this point from three-point range.

Texas was a 29-percent three-point shooting team before it shot 44 percent against Purdue and won the game in Austin on the back of that shooting.

Notre Dame came in shooting 31 percent.

But the Irish made 11-of-21 — 52-and-a-half percent — and made every three they needed in the second half to make sure their lead was safe.

“Boy, when it happens back-to-back, you’ve got to look at yourself,” Painter said.

It’s not the only area of introspection for Purdue as it sits 6-5 through 11 games, after its two-game Crossroads Classic winning streak was snapped.

“I like our guys. I think we’ve got good guys,” Painter said. “I don't like our fight right now. We have to have more of a fight to us.”

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There should be no surprise in the fact that Purdue has clearly felt the loss of a robust, experienced, reliable and profoundly productive senior class from last year.

But as of this day, Dec. 15, that process clearly continues, at some of the most basic levels there are.

Or at least that sure sounded like the case during an extended Painter spiel about his team and its struggles, during which he ranged from matters such as players cheering for each other from the bench, to “getting over themselves” on offense after starring in high school and other such things.

“We need everybody to be able to defend,” Painter said. “We need everybody to be able to do other things. Right now we're not very good at that. When we sub young guys in, they play off the looks that they get. You can see it in their body language, and older guys. It's not just those guys. It's kind of everybody.”

When Purdue left Charleston last month, the loss to Virginia Tech stung, but the two-and-a-half games of strong defense and consistent effort the Boilermakers showed seemed like a building block.

Since, that block has crumbled, as Painter’s team has experienced significant turbulence defensively, and when it’s bottomed out, it’s not been pretty.

To begin the game Saturday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Notre Dame made eight of its first nine shots, including several dunks. The root of Purdue’s issue: Dribble containment, ball pressure, the sorts of things Purdue has built its defenses around for as long as Painter’s been its coach. That’s not to say Purdue has always been great defensively, but that’s been the load-bearing wall of its defensive philosophy.

It’s failing this team, one that possesses physical presences enough in its backcourt to be better, though something is missing.

“It was just ball-screen defense,” senior Ryan Cline said of Notre Dame. “They just ran a basic motion ball-screen offense. It was just on our lapses. They got up good shots and knocked them down early.”

Painter’s message to his team — and this certainly isn’t a new message — is to not defend based on results at the offensive end.

“I think for us it's just knowing that we can't play through our offense,” Cline said, “that we’ve got to get stops. We’ve got to make consecutive stops instead of one. We’ve just got to put it together.”

If Purdue did let its offense affect its defense, then Saturday’s results were understandable.

A team that has been living and dying by the three doubly perished Saturday, as Notre Dame made them while Purdue was 9-of-29. Purdue aimed to get the ball in the paint more often to balance out its offense. It did that, but didn’t always finish once it reached the rim.

Purdue took 70 shots. It made only a third of them.

Carsen Edwards scored 27, but was 8-of-22 from the floor. Cline padded his numbers late, finishing 5-of-13 for 15 points. After his two-game slump stretched into the first half Saturday, though, some positive for Purdue did come in Cline making three second-half triples.

But Purdue didn’t make nearly enough shots to overcome Notre Dame’s knack for making every play, it seemed, it needed.

When Purdue got within four four minutes into the second half, freshman Dane Goodwin answered with an offensive rebound for an and-one. When Carsen Edwards made a three later to make it a five-point game, T.J. Gibbs answered with a triple of his own.

Goodwin and big man John Mooney (21 points) closed the game out for the Irish, leaving Purdue in an all-too-familiar position in this transitional year for the program. It was the Boilermakers’ fifth loss in seven games overall and fourth in as many games against high-major non-conference competition.

"We're very fortunate that we're in a good league and we're going to have a lot of opportunities," Painter said. "You don't like to see opportunities go past because you want to get wins and keep building your résumé, so there's definitely a sense of urgency. But there would be anyways."

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