Purdue rides defense to win at Minnesota
The Boilermakers didn’t shoot the ball particularly well Thursday night, but they didn’t need to.
Purdue held Minnesota to its season low in points, allowing the Gophers to shoot less than 35 percent, in winning 67-54 in The Barn.
The Boilermakers (18-11 overall, 9-6 in the Big Ten) now have an opportunity to get a coveted double-bye in the conference tournament, provided they beat Northwestern on senior day Sunday and Michigan State defeats Nebraska.
Purdue was outstanding defensively on Thursday, particularly on Minnesota (14-14, 5-10) guards Carlie Wagner and Kenisha Bell. The duo scored 31 on 12-of-30 shooting, but only eight points came after halftime, as both scored four.
“Most of their points came from those two players and coach told the team at halftime, that they had 23 of their 30 points,” Purdue assistant Beth Couture said on the post-game radio interview. “But we were a team and they were a two-man show. I thought our kids really played good defense on the both of them.”
The Boilermakers shot only 39 percent, but they won on the boards, 43-37 with 12 second-chance points, and were good offensively when they needed to be.
Ashley Morrissette in particular. After the senior guard started slowly, she heated up after halftime, helping Purdue turn its three-point lead at the break into six early in the third quarter on her three-pointer.
Another triple two minutes into the fourth put the Boilermakers up 55-47. She scored Purdue’s first 10 of the final period, helping Purdue to a 13-point lead with 3:13 remaining.
Morrissette finished with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-21 shooting with four three-pointers.
But Purdue, which battled foul trouble nearly from the jump (Dominique Oden had two fouls in the first 76 seconds and Morrissette got her second at 4:59), got other contributions. Reserve center Nora Kiesler played only four minutes, but her jumper from the left elbow with three minutes left in the third kept Purdue ahead.
“She gave us a spark,” Couture said. “She can hit that 10-foot jumper and a lot of people don’t come out and play her. We knew she could and she turned around and took it.”
Purdue took a 33-30 lead into halftime on Bridget Perry’s three-pointer. The senior had 12 points and six rebounds. Ae’Rianna Harris, making her third straight start in Purdue’s third straight win, had 13 points, five rebounds and a career-high five blocks, passing Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton for first all-time for the freshman season record.
“She just ignites us,” Couture said. “Her blocks came from all over and it was really huge. … She just keeps getting better and better.”
And fellow rookie Lamina Cooper was big, with career-highs of 10 points and eight rebounds off the bench, helping Purdue weather the foul trouble.
Purdue now plays Northwestern Sunday with a chance to get the Big Ten Tournament’s fourth seed.
“We’re really proud of the team,” Couture said. “They were really in tune to the scouting report. They really played together and it was really fun to watch.”
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