Purdue advances to WNIT Great 8 with 71-50 win over Duquesne
Purdue women's basketball kept its season alive in Mackey Arena on Thursday night, earning a 71-50 victory over Duquesne in the Super 16 round of the Women's NIT.
Abbey Ellis and Mary Ashley Stevenson paced the Boilermakers in the first half before Jayla Smith flipped the switch in the second half to help guide Purdue to a second consecutive win.
The win clinched Purdue's spot in the Great 8 round, which is its best mark in three Women's NIT appearances to date. The Boilermakers will await Colgate vs. Vermont tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. to find out their opponent in the next round.
Stevenson and Ellis form 1-2 punch in first half:
The inside out tandem of Abbey Ellis and Mary Ashley Stevenson were rolling from the jump in Mackey Arena. After a layup by Duquesne to open the scoring, Ellis and Stevenson combined to go on a 9-2 run on their own to give the Boilermakers a 9-4 lead at the 6:29 mark of the first.
The Dukes then mounted a charge as Purdue's offensive output ran dry, going on a 7-0 run to regain the an 11-9 lead with just under three minutes to play in the quarter. The Boilermakers were 1-10 from the field in the last 6:29 of the first quarter after a strong start from Ellis and Stevenson.
Sophie Swanson snapped a five minute scoreless stretch, getting a layup to go to tie things up at 11-11 heading into the second quarter.
Purdue was able to find some consistent success in the second quarter behind, you guessed it, that same duo. Ellis and Stevenson combined to score 12 of the first 14 points for the Boilermakers in the quarter, including scoring eight straight to give the Boilermakers a 23-15 lead with 4:16 to play in the half.
Duquesne's Megan McConnell was the lone Duke to have any sort of success in the first half, scoring ten of her team's 22 points in the opening 20 minutes of action. McConnell had a pair of threes in the second quarter to try and match the output of Ellis and Stevenson, but it was not enough.
Ellis and Stevenson combined to match Duquesne on the scoreboard in the first half on their own, scoring 22 points as the Boilermakers went into halftime with a 29-22 advantage.
The only other Boilermakers to score in the first half were Sophie Swanson with five points and Alaina Harper with two. Everyone outside of Ellis and Stevenson combined to shoot 3-15 as a whole, leaving the confident tandem to but Purdue's offensive hopes on their backs.
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Aggressiveness pays dividends down the stretch:
While the Boilermakers as a team struggled throughout the first half, that did not deter them from coming out firing in the third quarter. A more aggressive approach attacking the rim paid dividends for Purdue in the second half.
Perhaps nobody exuded that more than Rashunda Jones and Jayla Smith in the second half of Thursday's victory.
Jones, who was 0-4 in the first half, got her first shot to fall in the third quarter and parlayed that into six third quarter points on 3-3 shooting from the field. Smith also had a slow start, but turned it around by scoring a team-high 15 second half points to put the Dukes away for good. The tandem combined for 21 points in the second half to help guide the Boilermakers to a lopsided victory.
Freshman sharpshooter Sophie Swanson has been aggressive since she first stepped on the floor for the Boilermakers, to varying levels of success, but came up big in the second half.
Midway through the third quarter, Swanson knocked down a pair of threes to go along with two Jayla Smith buckets to give the Boilermakers a 45-31 lead with 3:24 to play in the quarter.
Duquesne had a response, however, getting the Purdue lead down to just six at the 1:26 mark before the Boilermakers leveled out and took a nine point advantage into the final quarter.
With the Dukes nipping at their heels, the Boilermakers turned to Smith one last time in the final frame to ultimately ice a second straight victory in the Women's NIT. The junior guard scored the first seven points in the fourth quarter, and later had four straight points to extend the Purdue lead to 17 with less than five minutes to play.
The Boilermakers were able to coast to a home win down the stretch to keep their season alive deep into March.
Stat blast:
Smith led the Boilermakers in scoring for the first time this season, with a season-high 15 points in the win. That mark was also matched by Abbey Ellis, who added six rebounds and four assists on the night.
Freshmen Mary Ashley Stevenson and Sophie Swanson had 13 and 14 points respectively in the victory, while Stevenson was a rebound short of a double-double and Swanson knocked down four of eight attempts from three-point range.
Purdue had the upper hand on the glass, outpacing the Dukes 44-39 in rebounding, while getting 16 second chance points on 11 offensive rebounds. Duquesne's 17 turnovers also resulted in 14 Purdue points.
The Dukes shot 28% from the field, including just 5-26 from three-point range compared to the Boilermakers' marks of 41% from the field and 7-22 from deep.
An improbable postseason run continues:
Purdue isn't supposed to be here. A 13-18 record upon the conclusion of the Big Ten Tournament left the Boilermakers on the outside looking in on the postseason. That second chance has resulted in a postseason run that seemed improbable just a few weeks ago.
The Boilermakers have now put together back-to-back wins for the first since January 2nd, when they won three straight over Indiana State, Wisconsin and Rutgers. Katie Gearlds and company will look to do just that against either Colgate or Vermont this weekend, likely in Mackey Arena once again.