Resilient Boilermakers land needed road win at Wisconsin
PDF: Purdue-Wisconsin statistics
Analysis ($): 3-2-1 | Wrap Video | Stat Blast
MADISON, Wis. — With 46 seconds left in overtime of a tied game Friday night at Wisconsin, Matt Painter wanted to be aggressive.
His team had just forced a turnover, and during the timeout that followed, Purdue’s coach called for an NBA-style 2-for-1, for the Boilermakers to get a quick shot out of the timeout to ensure one final possession.
It wanted to be aggressive, and wanted a quick shot.
It just so happens to have one of the most aggressive scorers and quick-shot-getters — and makers — in college basketball in Carsen Edwards.
The Boilermaker guard scored 36 points in Madison, but basically decided this game with a pass, with a decision.
As Edwards worked from the left wing, intending to shoot, he recognized Grady Eifert defender had stuck with him around the perimeter off a high screen. As he readied to shoot, Edwards noticed his teammate diving to the rim, unguarded, as he recalls.
He passed off.
“It was a rocket,” senior Ryan Cline said. “I was surprised Grady caught it, but he’s got those tight end hands like his brother.”
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“I should made the and-one,” Eifert said, “because I kind of lost it a little bit before I could gather it and go up with it.”
Eifert didn’t finish the shot, but he did draw a foul, then on a night on which foul shooting very nearly cost Purdue this game, he stepped to the line and made both.
“That’s why you come to Purdue, and that’s why you live for those moments,” Eifert said. “You just go up with confidence and know that all your practice has paid off and knock ‘em down.”
Those two points turned out to be the difference in an eventual 84-80 Boilermaker win that snapped Purdue’s four-game losing streak on the road this season and probably showed something previously unseen from this team on opponents’ home courts this season: A certain buoyancy, the resilience that allowed it to lose a seven-point lead in the final five minutes, then a four-point lead in the final minute, but reset and win the game anyway.
“Our guys showed a lot of grit, a lot of fight,” Painter said. “We’ve obviously had a couple really close games in non-conference on the road that really could have gone either way. This was big for our guys, just for their confidence.
“I was proud of them. They hung in there, had some things go against them and were able to regroup and make plays in overtime.”
Purdue led by as many as 11 in the first half, but saw that lead erased swiftly. But just as it would go on to end the game, the Boilermakers rebounded to lead by one at the half.
It didn't look like things would end so favorably for the visiting team late in regulation.
Around the five-minute mark, Ryan Cline fed Matt Haarms for a dunk, then nailed a pull-up three in transition off a Badger turnover, turning a two-point lead into a seven-point advantage. It took Wisconsin a little more than two minutes, though, to tie it.
With about 46 seconds left, Edwards seemed to throw the game's sharpest dagger, burying a 25-plus-foot three-pointer from the top of the arc to put Purdue ahead 72-68.
But off a scramble following an offensive rebound, D'Mitrik Trice banked in a three. After two Edwards free throws, Trice came off a high screen and knocked down another three over both Nojel Eastern and Matt Haarms, tying the game.
After Edwards' potential game-winner missed with three seconds left, Wisconsin had a chance of its own, but couldn't get a decent shot off.
Lost in the outcome might have been Purdue's defense on Ethan Happ.
The Badger star scored 31 on 14-of-17 shooting, with 13 rebounds and six assists. But only three of those points came in overtime, as did two of his eight turnovers.
With 51 seconds left and the game tied, Eifert's double-team on Happ, forced him to pass off, but Khalil Iverson couldn't handle the pass under the basket, and Cline stole it for what turned out to be one of the game's most important stops.
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