2/1/2018 basketball Edit

Purdue completes stunning comeback with overtime win

Kyle Charters • BoilerUpload

Staff Writer

With less than seven minutes left Thursday night, Purdue trailed Michigan by 16.

Seven minutes later, Purdue tied the game, ending a 16-0 run with a Dominique Oden baseline jumper with .7 seconds left. And five minutes later, the Boilermakers completed the comeback in overtime, getting a couple late Karissa McLaughlin three-pointers to pull off a stunning 81-79 victory over the 13th-ranked Wolverines in Ann Arbor that provides Purdue (15-8 overall, 6-3 in the Big Ten) with a significant NCAA résumé builder.

"I'm so proud of them, they kept fighting and fighting," Coach Sharon Versyp said on her post-game radio interview. "Michigan is a great basketball team, so efficient. They tore us apart no matter what defense we were in, but we finally got adjusted to it.

"... This is a big one. coming back from 16, they're exhausted but in a good way."

Purdue needed a break, too, and got it when Michigan (19-5, 8-3) missed two free throws with .3 seconds remaining in regulation. After Oden's jumper to tie at 72 — Purdue had trailed 72-56 with 6:48 remaining — Michigan called timeout and advanced the ball to midcourt. Then on the inbounds, Ae'Rianna Harris bumped Kayla Robbins, sending the Wolverine to the line (after a lengthy officials' review) for a potential game-winning free throw.

But the sophomore missed both.

In overtime, the Boilermakers twice fell behind, but McLaughlin had answers, hitting a three-pointer to tie at 77, then another to help Purdue to an 80-79 lead with about a minute left. And Purdue won it when Hallie Thome missed a jumper with a second left.

After struggling to contain Michigan's multiple scoring options for the first 33 minutes, Purdue was excellent in the final 12.

"We just started to adjust to them a lot better," Vesyp said. "We started fronting down low and putting pressure on (Hailey Brown). We did a triangle-and-two, our 1 defense, a 2-3 defense, man, we just kept trying to change it up."

Oden led Purdue with a career-high tying 26 points, including seven of the 16 in the late run, hitting 8 of 16 from the field with four three-pointers. McLaughlin also tied her career high by scoring 21 points, including makes on six of her 12 three-point attempts, with four assists and only a turnover. Harris added eight points and five rebounds, but it was her four blocks, a couple late, that were a significant boost. And Lamina Cooper, in only her second game back from illness, also tied her career-best by scoring 18 on 7-of-12 shooting with four rebounds and three steals.

"That's how 'Mina plays," Versyp said. "She's physical, fast, quick. ... We needed her on the floor at all times."

Purdue shot nearly 47 percent from the floor, taking 27 three-pointers and making 11, and it had only 13 turnovers. The Boilermakers also went to the line 19 times, hitting 14. Michigan shot 52 percent, but was only 3 of 6 at the line, including the two big misses late.

The Wolverines took a seven-point lead into halftime, then a 12-point edge into the third quarter. But after getting up by 16, their high, the offense disappeared. Katelynn Flaherty finished with 24, while Thome scored 20 while battling foul trouble late, a significant boost to the Boilermakers' comeback bid.

Purdue is now 3-0 vs. ranked teams this season, with wins vs. then No. 21 Rutgers, No. 18 Iowa and now 13 Michigan.

"This group, they never cease to amaze me," Versyp said. "... They're fighters and that's what I like to see."

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