Carsen Edwards carries Purdue into the semifinals
Analysis ($): Purdue-Israel
Carsen Edwards scored 36 points and dominated the third quarter early Sunday morning in carrying Purdue past Israel into the World University Games semifinals, 111-107 in overtime.
Edwards scored 18 in the third, then later blocked a potential go-ahead three late in fourth as Purdue won a thriller.
"Just seeing some shots go in (got me going)," Edwards said. "I was just playing, trying to contribute on the offensive end, but seeing some shots go in was a good thing for me."
Obviously.
The sophomore guard changed the game with the sort of shooting tear he's shown often in practices all summer, making eight threes on 14 tries, many of them challenged shots with defenders in close position.
"You just kind of get the ball to him and get out of the way," assistant coach Greg Gary said.
Still, despite the special performance from the young guard, Purdue survived some trying situations in the fourth period and OT to win.
"It's great to be able to experience that as a team," Gary said. "It's a new team from last year so no matter how many you have back or how much experience, to be able to go through that is really good for our guys, to be able to hang in there and win."
In the final minute of OT, Dakota Mathias made the game's biggest shot, beating the shot clock with a tough three to put the Boilermakers up 107-104, then made two foul shots to ice it. The senior finished with 16.
Israel forced overtime by putting back a missed free throw with less than a second to play in regulation, after Purdue had split a pair at the other end.
P.J. Thompson scored 22 points, making five threes.
And Vincent Edwards shook off an ankle injury suffered just before halftime to score 21 and grab nine rebounds, along with a number of important miscellaneous plays in important moments. He scored a crucial and-one on a turnaround jumper between two defenders with 3:32 left in regulation. In overtime, he blocked a shot when Israel was cutting to the basket for a quick two.
"He was tremendous," Gary said.
The senior forward, perhaps Purdue's most important player, was icing his ankle after the game.
"A gold medal would feel a lot sweeter than a hurt ankle (would hurt)," he said.
Purdue led by one in the final minute of the first half, but Israel retook the lead on a putback of a missed free throw on the play Vincent Edwards was injured on, then made a three just before the buzzer to take a 54-50 lead into the break.
Prior, it had been a back-and-forth game in which Purdue had struggled to stop Israel on defense, but managed to have enough offensive success to stay even or ahead much of the second quarter, thanks in part to a dozen points from Vincent Edwards in the first half.
Israel pushed Purdue to its limit, outrebounding the Boilermakers and thriving in half-court offense, shooting 48 percent for the game and generating countless buckets off drives and cuts to the rim.
"They're really good with that, Israel is, and they've got older guys and great passers," Gary said. "... They're really good (on offense), but in their ball-screen action, they put us in a bind with Isaac (Haas away from the basket). They're good at it and we didn't do a consistent job doing our job against it. It's not just one player. It's the guy on the ball, the post guy stopping the ball, the indirect guy helping. There's so many things involved."
Purdue will meet Serbia tomorrow at 12:30 a.m. ET Monday morning.
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