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The consummate role player, a label he'd take as a compliment, Grady Eifert stepped to the foul line in the second half of Saturday night's 81-62 win over Nebraska to students' chants of "MVP! MVP!"
"We all love it when he gets a little love," fellow senior Ryan Cline said later, "because he works so hard."
It was the usual Eifert stuff — offensive rebounds, deflections or steals and visits to the floor in pursuit of them — that sparked 15th-ranked Purdue to start the second half after a closely contested first.
It was the not-so-usual Eifert stuff that might have stood as the singular difference in the Boilermakers' eighth win in as many games.
The senior forward scored a career-high 16 points and didn't miss a shot of any kind. He was 4-of-4 from the floor, 2-of-2 from three and 6-of-6 at the foul line.
Purdue led by just two at the half, before Nebraska quickly tied it to open the second.
But after an Eifert offensive rebound, Carsen Edwards threw a pass behind his back to Trevion Williams for a dunk. Later, Eifert's steal set up a dunk for Eastern, then Eastern reciprocated by passing to Eifert for the three that capped a 14-2 Purdue burst that pushed its lead into double-figures and afforded it cushion enough to weather a slew of Cornhusker threes in an outlier sort of shooting performance for a team that's been struggling badly to score. This was Nebraska's seventh consecutive loss.
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During that second half stretch, Purdue made eight straight shots, six of them long jump shots.
Nojel Eastern articulated Purdue's offensive surge plainly.
"We have shooters," Eastern said.
As in, shooters.
Purdue shot 59 percent after halftime, made four threes between the 15:25 and 11:30 marks of the second half, and iced the game at the foul line, making 18-of-20 in the final 20 minutes after attempting just one in the first 20.
"We just tried to move, execute, come out the first five minutes (well)," Eastern said, following another double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds for the point guard.. "We didn't do that well the first five minutes against Minnesota; we turned the ball over. We tried to pick that up from the last game, come out, execute and stay within ourselves."
That wasn't the only second-half emphasis for the Boilermakers.
"We just talked at halftime about trying to get more offensive rebounds and more looks for our open shooters," Eifert said. "Just playing through hustle and energy, that's what we tried to do."
Carsen Edwards scored 27 points on 50-percent shooting and flawless work at the foul line, where he was 9-for-9. But Tim Miles figured as much for the Boilermaker All-American, which is why he felt Eifert made such a difference for Purdue.
"He really hurt us," Miles said. "I thought he was the key to the game."
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