Purdue 75, Duke 56- Game Wrap

When a 7'4" man dives on the floor, there's really no excuse for anyone else not to give their everything. Zach Edey made a diving save of the ball at half-court, and Fletcher Loyer gave up his body to take a charge in transition, and Purdue once again rose to the moment beating Duke 75-56

Purdue's jump shots came and went in the game, but their hustle and grit never wavered. Matt Painter's Boilermakers responded for the third time in four nights. Purdue now has back to back neutral floor victories over the #6 Gonzaga Bulldogs and #8 Duke to win the 2022 Phil Knight Legacy Tournament in Portland, Oregon.

Purdue's effort has been there all season, their three-point shooting is starting to show up, too. After Loyer drew the charge, he put the game away with a corner three to give Purdue a 68-56 lead with 4:51 left in the second half.

A lot will be made of Purdue's offense, but the Boilermakers dominated Duke the entire game on the defensive end. They held the best offensive rebounding team in the country to 1 offensive rebound in the first half and 11 for the game. Duke shot just 21-58 from the field.

Duke failed to score in the final 7:01 of the game, and missed its final 13 field goal attempts.

Zach Edey will have some work to do to claim best big man in the country still, but he was definitely the most dominant at the Phil Knight Tournament.

Edey won the tournament's MVP honors by scoring more than 20 points in every game.

He thoroughly outplayed Kyle Filipowski in the championship against Duke, scoring 21 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in his fifth double-double of the season.

The freshman guard appears to be figuring it out.

Loyer finished the game with a new career-high 18 points. He knocked down 4 of his 8 three-point attempts and played a team-high 33 minutes and 40 seconds.

His two three-pointers in the last ten minutes of the game helped push Purdue back to a double-digit lead and hold off a Duke Blue Devils comeback.

Purdue once again got off to a rough start. Their offense seemed to struggle with Duke's length and Duke aggressively played Purdue's passing lanes. Duke looked to cut off Purdue's action before Purdue's guards and wings could get Edey the ball down low.

It worked to the tune of 5 early turnovers for Purdue in the first 5 minutes. At this point, Duke had 7 field goal attempts and Purdue had just 3.

For a long stretch of this game, Duke had no answer to Purdue's offense.

Purdue was diligent in getting the ball into Zach Edey on the post and making shots from the perimeter. Their passing was crisp and they were able to get past Duke's perimeter defense. It kept Purdue up double-digits for most the game.

Then Coach Scheyer called up a zone and Purdue struggled to respond. Looks into Edey became more difficult and they struggled to knock down perimeter points. Both offenses fell to a slog.

Purdue started the second half 2-8 from three against the zone before Fletcher Loyer blew the game open with two three-pointers late.

It was a battle of strength on strength. Purdue was one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the country. Duke was the best offensive rebounding team in the country.

Purdue's size and effort won out in the first half. Duke came into the game averaging an offensive rebound on over 40% of their misses, but Purdue held them to just 1 offensive rebound in the first half.

Purdue grabbed 3 offensive rebounds. Neither team had a second chance basket in the first half.

Duke got out rebounded for the first time this season. Purdue dominated the glass in the first half, and finished the game with a 42-31 rebounding edge. Duke had 10 offensive rebounds in the second half.

Zach Edey was always going to a problem for Duke. Duke just had to hope to sustain his brutal low post offense, or find one of their big men to be effective against him.

Dereck Lively II looked like he might have a chance early, but Edey was able to get inside position on Lively and he was forced to foul. Ditto on Ryan Young who picked up 2 fouls in 6 minutes of guarding Zach Edey.

Ryan Filipowski was Duke's best offensive weapon in the first half, but he, too, got caught up trying to help Edey inside. He got his second foul after having to stop a potential break away with more than five minutes remaining in the first half.

Things didn't improve for Duke in the second half. Zach Edey kept getting his points and rebounds and Duke's bigs kept fouling.

In a one minute stretch, Lively II fouled out and immediately after Filipowski was gone.

Roach has been asked to take on more and more of Duke's offense as their group of highly touted five-star freshman has struggled.

He was having one of his best games in the first half, scoring 10 points on 4 of 5 shooting. Roach's mid-range jumper was falling and he was playing effective defense against Purdue's Braden Smith. But he went down with an apparent foot injury mid way through the first half.

After seeing trainers at the end of the bench, Roach made his way back on the floor. A few possessions later and it was clear Roach's foot still wasn't right. He limped off the court and to the locker room towards the end of the first half.

But Roach made his way back out of the locker and into the lay up line before the start of the second half and was ready to go for the second half.

Matt Painter's bench continues to be a weapon. All five rotation players off the bench scored in the first half, none as shocking as Brian Waddell's first collegiate dunk off a give and go with Zach Edey.

Purdue's Caleb Furst and Trey Kaufman-Renn both took advantage of Duke's bigs who were already fighting foul trouble dealing with Zach Edey. They both had post touches where they got to their strong hand. Brandon Newman hit a three and had two assists in 9 minutes before picking up his second foul.

Caleb Furst continued his strong play with 4 points and 3 rebounds in 10 first half minutes.

The bench didn't stop at half time.

Caleb Furst was all over the glass, grabbing 10 rebounds and scoring 11 points for his first double-double of the season 24 minutes.