Breakdown: Purdue's loss to Texas

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Breaking down No. 23 Purdue's 70-66 loss to Texas in Mackey Arena Saturday night.

Purdue had its chances often against the Longhorns, none better than the five-point lead it held with less than three minutes to play.

But a team that has been prone to spurts of turnovers was stricken at the worst time.

First, a mishandled ball by Aaron Wheeler, then an illegal screen called on Matt Haarms, then a mishandled ball by Eric Hunter.

Texas turned it Into a 7-0 run to claim the lead back, and Purdue found no counterpunch and the Longhorns iced the game at the foul line.

"It was a lack of concentration," Hunter said of the late turnover spell. "We've proven we can pass and catch."

It wasn't an isolated incident.

Even though Texas probably played better than the home team — it certainly shot better — Purdue had multiple opportunities to push two-possession leads out further. Each time, it turned the ball over, allowed Texas to get in transition or both.

"Once we got over the hump a few times," senior Jahaad Proctor said, "we couldn't seal the deal."

Late in the first half, Purdue led by six, but missed back-to-back transition chances at the rim, then gave up a transition three, making for a five-point swing.

"We were in really good positions," Coach Matt Painter said, "then we just didn't execute.

"We opened that door, and they made the plays they needed to."

Purdue turned the ball over 14 times, but again, it was more about when they happened as opposed to how many. And the Boilermakers again had little answer for Matt Coleman, who paced a Longhorn offense that shot 52.4 percent as the road team in Mackey Arena and made every shot — and every free throw — it had to to win In Mackey Arena.

Well, considering a few of Purdue's most impactful turnovers were largely unforced, you could say it's most responsible for the unfavorable outcome.

But that wouldn't be fair to Matt Coleman, who for the second year in a row did Purdue in.

The Texas guard scored 22 points on 7-of-9 shooting, with seven assists to just one turnover. To open the second half, the Longhorns ran him off the same ball-screen action several possessions In a row and came with a couple dunks and a three to show for it, as Purdue again failed to start a second half particularly well.

"His passing and decision-making was better than our defense," Painter said.

Aside from Purdue just needing solid possessions when playing with leads and not getting them, Texas was better than the Boilermakers in many elements of the game, and might have led by a fairly comfortable cushion had Sasha Stefanovic not debuted this season with a run of four straight made threes in the first half.

Purdue is still clearly finding itself offensively, and in the first half, it couldn't get the post established. It didn't help that Matt Haarms was called for a pair of offensive fouls posting up. Hunter credited Texas' ball pressure on entry men as being disruptive, as well.

Texas' length and athleticism did really matter in this game, too, as the Longhorns erased a couple buckets around the rim with recovery blocks on Trevion Williams and Evan Boudreaux, to name two.

Purdue really struggled around the basket, as it was just 17-of-45 shooting two-point field goals and managed just 26 points In the paint, one of its key measures this season.

Purdue finished with 17 offensive rebounds but just nine second-chance points.

It would seem to mean that Purdue has a long way to go, at both ends of the floor, that the process this team was bound to undergo to start this season is going to be real.

Purdue really struggled in different ways at both ends of the floor, but especially defensively.

That said, as difficult as last season's Texas and Florida State losses were in non-conference play, in hindsight they did reveal Purdue's potential, because it was good enough to win those games, but just didn't.

More is expected of the Boilermakers at home, and should be, but on a night when Purdue didn't play terribly well, it still did enough to be in position to win, so there's that.

But to win big-time games from here on out, Purdue has to be better, clearly.

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