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PDF: Purdue-Florida State statistics

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Poise has been a slippery commodity for this new-look Boilermaker basketball team, as it works to either establish it or overcome what might be a fundamental lacking, and it came to the forefront in the most painful fashion Wednesday night.

After surging in the second half to flip a 12-point halftime deficit into an eight-point lead with less than three-and-a-half minutes to play, the No. 19 Boilermakers crumbled from there, falling to 15th-ranked Florida State 73-72 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

At its best — the first half vs. Virginia Tech in Charleston, the second half vs. FSU in Tallahassee — Purdue's shown how formidable it can be.

At its worst, however, it's shown how little it can matter.

"We can't have one good half, one bad half," senior Ryan Cline said. "We have to be consistent."

This could have been a springboard win, a difficult victory in a difficult venue, to open a five-game stretch that could conceivably shape Purdue's season.

And the Boilermakers were well on their way, up 72-64 following Evan Boudreaux's driving and-one with 3:23 to play.

Purdue never scored again, and Florida State's Trent Forrest's runner with 5.2 seconds left won it, moments after the Boilermakers' Ryan Cline was tied up, resulting in a turnover, and moments before his cross-court pass to Carsen Edwards for a potential game-winner was intercepted, marring an otherwise strong game for Cline, who made 7-of-11 threes and scored 21.

"We just didn't make the plays necessary," Coach Matt Painter said, "but we close the game out if we make our free throws and just get fouled there at the end."

In the final 3:23, Purdue turned the ball over five times, bringing its total to 20, eight by Carsen Edwards and 16 total from its three starting guards; gave up five second-chance points after cleaning up an open wound of an issue on the offensive glass following the first half; missed a pair of open threes in rhythm; and missed a pair of free throws, Edwards uncharacteristically coming up empty on a pair with 1:18 left.

Purdue only got two shots off in the final 3:23, the two missed threes. Prior, it was 13-of-21 from the floor after halftime.

Those final sequences reminded of a disjointed first half in which all of Purdue's most acute concerns may have been not only laid bare but rubbed raw by Florida State's athleticism and physicality. Before halftime, Purdue's guards were out of sync and its frontcourt overwhelmed, Boudreaux's productivity aside.

But the difference between the first half and second half was profound, as Purdue got all the rebounds in the second half it didn't get in the first, looked like the more disciplined team and made threes.

"In the first half, we kind of beat ourselves a little bit," said Boudreaux, who gave Purdue 12 points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench. "We talked about that at halftime, coming out with more fire, more intensity in executing our stuff. We slowed ourselves down and made sure we were doing the right things. Once we started executing and boxing out and getting the rebounds, we started to build a little momentum."

But as quickly as things flipped from half to half, they flipped back when they mattered most, leaving the Boilermakers stung to begin this key non-conference stretch of five straight games against top-25-level competition, only one of those games in Mackey Arena.

Purdue has shown flashes.

"I thought our execution was great in the second half compared to the first," Cline said, "but you can't have those kinds of deficits on the road."

And now Purdue can lament a marquee win's escape, the sort that could have led to more, for all they know, the sort of missed opportunity that may sting even more come March than it did early Thursday morning as the Boilermakers left the Tucker Civic Center.

Now, shaking off the ache of this Florida State loss becomes paramount.

Purdue has seen two coveted résumé-type wins slip in winning time, this one far more biting than the last.

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