Purdue goes small to get big win
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INDIANAPOLIS - In the first half of Saturday's Crossroads Classic meeting with Notre Dame, Purdue got worked, just flat worked.
The Irish did whatever they wanted off the dribble and seemingly made every three they took in hanging 52 points on the Boilermakers in the first 20 minutes.
Matt Painter's message to his team, then, in the locker room: "There's no reason we can't play in the second half the way Notre Dame played in the first half."
"We can flip this," Painter said, per his post-game account. "Our shots can go in."
That message resonated, apparently.
After trailing by 17 points in the first half, No. 15 Purdue rallied past 21st-ranked Notre Dame to win 86-81, registering its first Crossroads win after five losses and earning the needed NCAA Tournament résumé win it didn't yet have.
"Without this win," big man Caleb Swanigan said, "we had no résumé."
Purdue was buoyed by 26 points and 10 rebounds from Swanigan; 20 points and 10 rebounds from Vincent Edwards in one of the more impactful games he's played as a Boilermaker; and a defensive effort that represented nearly a 180 from the first half.
Notre Dame laid waste to the Boilermakers off the dribble before halftime, penetrating the lane repeatedly and either reaching the rim for buckets or fouls or kicking out to open three-point shooters. A flurry of Irish threes late in the first half left the Boilermakers standing on the edge of a cliff, on the precipice of an embarrassing blowout during a half spent scrambling on D.
In the second, Purdue changed the game with a personnel maneuver. Matt Painter left big man Isaac Haas on the bench and went small with Swanigan at the 5, Vincent Edwards at the 4 and freshman Carsen Edwards on the floor to counter Notre Dame's dribble penetration.
It worked, immediately shutting off the open faucet that was Notre Dame's scoring in the first half and laying the foundation for Purdue's 12-2 run to open the second half.
Later, after Purdue had fallen back behind by eight, P.J. Thompson buried a three, Swanigan scored on the block, then Dakota Mathias turned a steal into a transition three-pointer for Ryan Cline, giving Purdue a 67-65 lead with 10:28 left to play.
Notre Dame never led again, laboring through a half in which it shot 38 percent, turned the ball over seven times, and got not a single point from V.J. Beachem or Martinas Geben, who combined for 19 in the first half. Meanwhile, Notre Dame leading scorer Steve Vasturia was held to just three points on 1-of-8 shooting for the game.
"I definitely think going smaller helped us," Vincent Edwards said. "In the first half, we kind of struggled with all our size in there, so us going small in the second half really helped to where we were able to defend it easier."
There was more to it than that, Irish coach Mike Brey said.
"They guarded the heck out of us," he said.
Effort played a role.
"We wanted to win the game," Swanigan said of Purdue's defensive performance, "and we're tired of losing against other quality opponents. We just found that (effort) and strung it together."
But while Purdue found elusive answers on defense, it also awoke offensively.
It raised its shooting percentage from one half to the next from 40 percent to just under 52. It made five second-half threes on 11 tries after making two on seven before halftime.
Swanigan got established on the interior and exerted the influence of size even while Purdue was small. He made 11-of-19 shots and scored 26 as the Boilermakers' standout pair of forwards loomed large.
Vincent Edwards was, again, a terror on the offensive glass, grabbing six of them, with several direct put backs. He made 7-of-12 shots in scoring a season-best 20. He was clearly gotten untracked since early season struggles landed him in a reserve role.
"(His effort lately) has been big-time," Painter said. "He was probably the key to the game."
Among many.
Ryan Cline was sick this week. He didn't practice in the days leading up to the game.
He responded with the go-ahead three, four important free throws down the stretch, two of which coming after the guard grabbed one of the game's most important rebounds, after Bonzie Colson missed around the basket with the Irish down three and less than a minute-and-a-half to play.
Carsen Edwards added 11 points, with two first-half steals that led to Purdue buckets while it was struggling to score. Those were big plays. He turned the ball over just once in 32 minutes.
Coming into the season, Purdue knew the freshman could score; it might not have known he could impact games in as many ways as he's been.
"His effort to start the second half was huge for us," Painter said.
It was an important win for Purdue, landing those elusive résumé and Crossroads Classic wins, but also some measure of validation.
Purdue faced long odds against a good team in an NCAA Tournament atmosphere, rallied and made every play it needed to make in the end to win. And it did it differently than its profile would suggest.
The Boilermakers are defined by their size. In the second half, the face of that size, Isaac Haas, played all of two minutes. It wasn't his day, not against this opponent on this afternoon.
But it was Purdue's.
| Player of the Game | Play of the Game | Stat of the Game |
|---|---|---|
|
Caleb Swanigan was great - great - but this goes to Vincent Edwards, whose 20 and 10 off the bench were a game-changer. He made so many big plays, particularly on the offensive glass. All these putbacks he's gotten the past few games, those are found money for Purdue, and today they were absolute gold. |
Lots of options here, but we'll go with the play that broke the seal for Purdue. With 10-and-a-half minutes left, Dakota Mathias generated a steal and hit Ryan Cline for the transition three that gave Purdue its first lead after being down as many as 17 in the first half. It was significant, too, because it was reflective of Purdue's ability to generate offense off defense against an opponent that typically doesn't beat itself. |
We'll go here with Notre Dame's 38.2-percent shooting after halftime. If Purdue didn't get some traction on D in the second half, it wasn't going to have any chance. A really impressive from Purdue in the second half and, really, a bit of a referendum on playing with the size Purdue plays with. |
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