Purdue 65, Nebraska 62- Game Wrap

Nebraska had seven straight shots at the basket trailing Purdue 54-53 and couldn't convert with around a minute of action left. A miss went off the hands of Braden Smith and out of bounds. Then off of Caleb Furst and out of bounds. Then Sam Griesel had a look at a shot at the basket, and so did Emmanuel Bandoumel, but the Cornhuskers couldn't get any to fall and Zach Edey finally came away with it for Purdue.

Two Brandon Newman free throws later and it looked like Purdue might get out of Nebraska with their tenth win.

Then Keisei Tominaga happened. A drifting, on the move three from the cornered tied the ball game at 56, and #4 Purdue would get the ball with 9.1 seconds left and a chance to escape Lincoln with their perfect record in tact.

Braden Smith would get a big screen from Zach Edey up top and find Fletcher Loyer in the corner for a wide open three. Loyer had 18 points at this point, but his wide open corner three went just long and the ball floated in the air as time expired.

Purdue and Nebraska would be going to overtime, 56-56.

Brandon Newman would add another missed three to the total to start overtime as Purdue looked for any kind of offense.

It took almost two minutes of action and a shove inside on a miss before Zach Edey went to the line to try to break the scoreless start to overtime. He missed the first free throw before making the second to put Purdue's lead at 57-56 with 3:04 to play.

Zach Edey denied Sam Griesel at the rim before Derrick Walker challenged Edey at the rim and gave Nebraska their first lead in overtime, 58-57.

Fletcher Loyer responded with a difficult lay up to put Purdue back up top 59--58.

Walker wasn't done, finishing through Edey with his left hand at the rim. But Purdue's true freshman wasn't done, and Loyer crossed up his defender and hit a pull-up jumper from mid-range to go up 61-60.

A frenetic back and forth saw Braden Smith hit the ground hard for no call on a lay up, and an open Emmanuel Bandoumel three just missed. Edey grabbed the rebound and Nebraska was forced to foul true freshman Braden Smith.

Smith made the first and then the second to extend the lead to 63-60.

Keisei Tominaga continued to make plays late for Nebraska, and got a lay-up to go with just under 20 seconds left to bring the game to 63-32.

Braden Smith would get sent to the line again after it appeared he lost the ball dribbling at mid-court just before the whistle blew. He made both again, pushing the game to 65-62.

A Greisel three would come up just short and the ball would find its way into Smith's hands and he sprinted up court as Purdue barely escaped Lincoln with their tenth win of the season, 65-62.

Fletcher Loyer has won the last two Freshman of the Week honors in the Big Ten. He's announced himself at Mackey Arena, Portland, Oregon, and now in Lincoln, Nebraska as one of the conference's best guards.

His poster dunk off a Zach Edey hand-off was a highlight for Purdue in a game where neither team is gonna remember their offensive performance.

Nebraska brought the fight to Purdue, providing the most effective game plan against Zach Edey to this point. The Cornhuskers simply would not allow Edey to get the ball in the paint, and when Edey did catch it, they'd send a double, or a triple team if needed. Whatever it took to get out of the big man's hands.

The game plan to force Purdue's other player's to beat them worked, or well almost, if it weren't for that true freshman, Fletcher Loyer and his 22 points.

Coach Fred Hoiberg chose to live with Purdue shooting three-pointers and forcing cross court passes to find open men. It held Purdue's #1 offense to its lowest point total of the season after two halves at just 56 points.

Zach Edey's streak of 20+ point games comes to an end at 8.

Give Coach Hoiberg credit, Purdue hadn't faced a defensive scheme that had been this effective all season. It helped that the refs decided to swallow their whistle for the first ten minutes, but that went both ways with just 3 total fouls called in the first nine minutes of action.

Purdue's offense was stalled under Hoiberg's pressure on the perimeter, doubling in the press, and physical brand of defense. Once again Purdue's true freshman responded.

Purdue's team looked frustrated from the lack of whistles with the game at 19-19. Fletcher Loyer and Ethan Morton had spent about as much time on the ground as they did on their feet. That didn't stop Loyer from continuing to drive to the hoop after his jumper stopped falling.

Loyer used an Edey seal to get to the hoop, took a big bump on the right side of the rim, and went flying to the baseline. There wasn't a whistle, but the ball bounced off the backboard and Purdue was able to take a 21-19 lead.

His next possession he kept the pressure on Nebraska, driving past his defender, and this time pausing just a second before laying another ball off the backboard. This time the whistle followed and his free throw gave Purdue a 24-19 with 4:55 left int he first half.

It sparked Purdue's offense, which would score 10 more points in the final five minutes as part of a 15-5 run to finish the first half.

Keisei Tominaga continued to provide a spark off the bench for Hoiberg, after only scoring 5 points in the first half, he provided a big scoring punch off the bench, including the game-tying three that gave him 19 points on the night and Nebraska a chance to upset the #4 Boilermakers.

Emmanuel Bandoumel and Derrick Walker both had 14 points for Nebraska.

Nebraska shot 23-72 from the field but had 19 offensive rebounds.

They had 14 points off turnovers and 9 second chance points.

Purdue turned defense into good offense the next possession. Brandon Newman reached in on a drive and got his hand on a drive and knocked the ball loose. The turnover led to the Purdue's best offense of the night with Trey Kaufman-Renn catching the ball on the right block against an out of sorts Nebraska defense.

Kaufman-Renn spun towards the paint as he caught the ball, rifling a pass to Edey who had sealed his man in front of the rim. Edey was able to maintain the pass and get the easiest shot of the half for the big man. Edey made every one of his shot attempts in the first half, but had a season-low in attempts with 4.

Purdue's next possession pushed Purdue's lead to 29-19 and gave them the biggest lead of the game. It wasn't nearly as pretty with the shot clock winding down after Jenkins Jr. nearly lost a pass when he slipped above the three-point arc. He was able to save it to Kaufman-Renn who would have a pass deflected before finding Ethan Morton on the wing.

Morton was able to make the three pointer as the shot clock expired.