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Make no mistake: There's plenty Purdue could have done Thursday night to side-step the heart-breaking 71-68 loss it incurred at Minnesota.

Making more than two three-pointers on 17 tries, for example. Or executing a little better on offense late in the game, more like the Boilermakers did in their narrow road wins at Michigan State and Ohio State not all that long ago.

But the single-biggest thing that cost Purdue this was win was simple: Luck. Simple luck, the breaks of the game.

Marcus Carr made two three-pointers in the final minute-plus to rally the Gophers back from five down with two minutes left.

The first one came when Purdue's Sasha Stefanovic swatted Jamal Mashburn Jr.'s shot straight to Carr, leading to the open triple while the Boilermakers were scrambling to the ball on defense.

That one tied the game at 64 with 1:08 left.

After Williams gave Purdue the lead back, Carr's final three — this one the go-ahead shot with 14 seconds left — banked in.

It was that kind of night for Purdue and Minnesota alike. In the first half, back-to-back Minnesota possessions that nearly resulted in turnovers wound up as five Gopher points.

Mix In some officiating that Purdue vehemently objected to and this was typical Purdue-Minnesota voodoo in all its glory.

There were no injuries, thankfully, nor was there any offensive pass interference, but there were two pivotal calls that went against the visitors.

"It's life on the road, man," Williams said. "Everything doesn't always go your way. It's kind of hard to play the game when you're fighting you're opponent and you're fighting the refs constantly. I don't necessarily want to make It about the refs but (those calls) were a huge part of the reason that we lost.

"We've got to be better in the future at trying to put games away, so we don't even have to go through that."

First, there was a dubious blocking foul called on Mason Gillis with 40 seconds left that sent Carr to the line for his only two free throws of the game. The block-charge call Is always of the bang-bang variety and can often go either way, but Gillis was clearly outside the charge circle and appeared positioned before Carr contacted him.

"Mason's charge that he took that they called a block could have gone either way," Painter said, contradicting his very statement with how he worded it.

With seven seconds left, and Purdue down one, the Boilermakers threw a long Inbound from the sideline to Williams, who went baseline against Liam Robbins, drew contact and was called for traveling.

"It wasn't a travel," Painter said after both objecting to the call live and, he says, watching the replay afterward.

Gabe Kalscheur's two free throws finalized the scoring, as Purdue didn't get a good look at a game-tying three off, and absorbed its second difficult road outcome in as many outings, this one playing out much like the Maryland setback.

At Maryland, though, Purdue could do nothing but point a finger inward and credit the Terps for making all the plays they needed.

The same could be said for the Minnesota game, too, but between Purdue's objections to the officiating and loose balls' serendipity with the Gophers, it's a more multi-layered topic this time.

"It's pretty hard," guard Eric Hunter said after scoring 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting. "We're a team that preaches playing hard and getting 50/50 balls, and some of those just didn't fall our way. We weren't first to them and that stuff adds up, especially on the road.

"On the road you're not going to get some calls, but there's plenty of other possessions before those calls were made that decided the game too."

That was Painter's message to his team afterward, that a lot more went into this loss than just the decisive moments.

"You allow the game to be close and crazy things happen," Painter said.

"We allowed the game to be close."

Last time Purdue played Minnesota, the Boilermakers took 10 threes after halftime and made eight of them.

This time, the Boilermakers' irksome penchant for bottoming out from long range struck again.

Purdue believes in its shooters, but the numbers have repeatedly belied that belief.

Thursday night, Brandon Newman made the third three Purdue attempted and classmate Mason Gillis made the second-to-last one it tried. The other 15 missed.

"You can't go on the road and shoot 2-of-17 from three, and then things get close," Painter said. "We've got too many guys who can shoot the ball well that don't knock down shots for us."

Meanwhile, Minnesota's story from distance reminded of Purdue's in the first meeting between these two teams, that 18-point Boilermaker win, and reminded of Maryland's closing surge.

The worst three-point shooting team in the Big Ten, the Golden Gophers made their final three threes and four of their last five. Prior to those last five attempts, they were 3-of-19.

Trevion Williams was dominant.

The Boilermaker center went for 24 points and 10 rebounds, again outplaying star Gopher big man Liam Robbins, who got 11 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks, but went 4-of-11 with four turnovers.

And when Williams was out of the game, for the second game in a row, Zach Edey softened the drop-off, if not erased it.

Edey scored 13 points before Purdue fell at the hand of his fellow Canadian, Marcus Carr, who scored eight of his 19 in the final minute and change.

"They did less doubles (in the post)," Edey said, "but I also made sure to do less dribbling. ... I've learned to catch, drop-step, maybe one dribble and shoot."

It was another outstanding game for Purdue's young center.

"I'm just trying to build on every game I play, improve from every game I play," Edey said.

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