Purdue's win over Iowa State an emotional one
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MILWAUKEE — Dakota Mathias played it cool, sitting in his locker after Purdue's 80-76 win over Iowa State Saturday night, the win that sent the Boilermakers to their first Sweet 16 since 2010 and officially exorcised whatever NCAA Tournament demons this group held.
Then, he was asked about the magnitude of the win.
"It's everything, man. We're excited," Purdue's junior co-captain said.
His voice cracks, if only for an instant in an emotional, cathartic moment.
"We've been through it all, our junior class," he continued, "the guys in this locker room. I love them. It means a lot."
Classmate Vincent Edwards, starring for Purdue when it matters most, struggled to articulate his emotions.
"I can't even tell you," he said. "I can try to find every word in the book but it wouldn't describe the way I'm feeling on the inside right now. I can't even begin to describe how it feels."
Then there's Caleb Swanigan, who was typical Caleb Swanigan after an utterly special performance against the Cyclones in all sorts of ways.
"I'm just excited to see who we play," Swanigan said with his usual matter-of-factness.
The feeling for Purdue was surreal; the game was.
A 19-point lead had gone totally by the wayside and Purdue had fully found itself back on that all-too-familiar slippery slope, its season at risk, as Iowa State led for the first time with just 3:11 left to play in Saturday night's Round of 32 Midwest Regional matchup in Milwaukee.
What happened then, though, thrust the Boilermakers into next week's Sweet 16 and maybe underscored that all those trials and tribulations of the past were worth it in the long run.
Purdue steadied itself, led by an elite performance from Swanigan, rallied to take the lead back then held on to beat the fifth-seeded Cyclones, in a game that was bizarrely evenly matched on paper beforehand and lived up, and then some.
The Boilermakers looked poise to cruise past Iowa State when Edwards dunked off a sharply executed back cut and feed from Mathias with less than 14-and-a-half minutes left. It put Purdue ahead 58-39.
A 21-5 Cyclone run, though — a burst that had so much more to do with Iowa State than it did Purdue — changed things entirely.
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Iowa State took its first lead of the game with 3:11 to play.
It lasted 13 seconds.
P.J. Thompson's only field goal of the game was a three from the right wing that rolled all the way around the cylinder, then out, but off the backboard and back in. Swanigan then scored for a quick 5-0 response.
"I think we showed a lot of poise," said Mathias, who made two threes in the final 38 seconds of the first half to give Purdue a 13-point lead at the break. "We knew they were going to make a run at some point and they hit us pretty hard, but we got right back up and punched back."
Thompson scored five points.
"They were the most important points of the game," Swanigan said.
Indeed.
With 11 seconds to go and Purdue up only two, Mathias missed a one-and-one, but in one of the most impressive plays of an All-America season, Swanigan barreled into the lane, tipped the offensive rebound back to himself, then controlled it.
"(The ball) was in no man's land," Swanigan said. "Someone had to go get it. I got it."
Then he got it to Thompson, who just more than a week ago promised to make the next game-sealing free throws that came his way after a big miss against Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament.
Iowa State fouled him. Thompson made both.
Purdue won, sending it to Kansas City for a either a meeting with No. 1 seed Kansas in its backyard or for a third meeting this season with Michigan State.
Swanigan carried Purdue to K.C.
"Biggie was National Player-of-the-Year tonight," Mathias said.
The final line: 20 points, 12 rebounds — including the biggest of the season for Purdue — and seven assists. His passing, for the second NCAA Tournament game in a row, might have been his most valuable element.
Then there's Vincent Edwards, who went for 21 points, 10 rebounds and four assists with no turnovers, following a 21-point game against Vermont.
"I don't what it is about the month of March," Edwards said. "One of our coaches, Kenny Lowe, always asks me, 'What month is it?' It's March."
Edwards is proving himself in March.
As has his entire team.
The past-failures narrative can now be laid to rest. This was a hard-fought, close game against two teams that match up almost dead even by most every metric and ranking. It played out that way, Purdue dominating for about 25 minutes, Iowa State for about 12, then the Boilermakers winning a toss-up at the end.
"We kept our composure," Coach Matt Painter said. "We've been able to do that all year. Sometimes, we've fallen short in a couple games, but for the most part we've gotten in those close games we've had a lot of success."
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