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There have been moments in which Purdue has had to take its point guard, Nojel Eastern, off the floor in high-leverage situations, out of concern over his well-known foul-shooting difficulties.

Yet, on Saturday, there was the sophomore, making six straight, in the final seven-and-a-half minutes of Purdue’s authoritative, then nerve-wracking, 73-62 win over Belmont.

His classmate, Matt Haarms, was just moved to a role coming off the bench, after his ascension to the starting five after an excellent debut season yielded uneven results.

Yet, it was Haarms standing at the end as arguably the game’s most influential player, even after All-American Carsen Edwards led all scorers with 24 points.

For neither sophomore, Eastern or Haarms, has this season been a straight line upward as hoped, but in the Boilermakers’ non-conference finale, in one way or another, both peaked.

Purdue dominated Belmont for 30 minutes, behind suffocating defense against one of college basketball’s better offensive teams, but a mini-meltdown cracked the door for the Bruins, wo used their backcourt pressure to frazzle Purdue and cut a 22-point second-half deficit down to just nine with 7:31 to go.

It was then that Eastern first was sent to the foul line, in the one-and-one.

Last season, Eastern made less than 42 percent of his four-dozen foul shots.

After an off-season spent seeking solutions, he missed 12 of his first 15 this season.

He stepped to the line, and made the first, then the second.

Less than a minute later, with Belmont now within eight, he was fouled again, again a one-and-one.

He stepped to the line, and made the first, then the second.

Finally, with a minute and 19 seconds left and Belmont still hovering around, within eight, Eastern was fouled again.

He stepped to the line, and made the first, then the second, this time in the double-bonus.

“I don’t let the criticism get me down or the circumstances, no matter how many I miss prior,” Eastern said. “Today was the day we needed the free throws. I tried to lock in and have confidence at the line.”

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It might not be entirely accurate to call Haarms’ move to the bench a “demotion,” because Matt Painter’s stated goal for the switch was to try to spark the sophomore big man’s “energy,” the player’s defining characteristic last season. Painter said Haarms has looked tired earlier in games than it stands to reason that a player should.

But on Saturday, there was energy in abundance and much to be shown for it when all was said and done.

At the offensive end, Purdue prioritized getting the ball inside, whether it was Haarms, starter Evan Boudreaux or freshman Trevion Williams. Haarms was particularly effective, scoring 12 points, the majority of them on post-ups or whatever action followed them, and drawing three fouls.

“We’re a really good team when we get the ball inside,” Haarms said, “be that through driving it, getting it into the paint or just throwing it inside. Establishing that presence in the post is a really important part of that.”

Defensively, the 7-foot-3 center stood tall, a key figure in a dominant showing by Purdue, one that held a top-10 scoring team nationally to just 62 points, and only 34 through 30 minutes, on just 36-percent shooting.

Belmont thrives on shooting threes.

It was 11-of-38 and didn’t start really making shots until its mid-second-half surge, when the hole was too deep to escape. And there were some flukes in there, too, like when Haarms blocked a shot straight to Michael Benkert for an open three in rhythm, as if the two opponents had colluded on the play.

Haarms was a pivotal presence in that defensive effort — obviously part of the reason he turned Purdue’s three-way timeshare at center into playing 26-and-a-half minutes himself — with three blocked shots, a number of shots affected, and eight rebounds.

But this was perhaps Purdue’s best team defensive outing of the season, at least against a quality opponent, which Belmont is, having come in 9-1, with a win at UCLA to its credit.

Eastern’s pressure on the perimeter and Ryan Cline’s solid defense on former grassroots teammate Dylan Windler loomed large too.

Windler, one of college basketball’s finest mid-major players, if not one of its finest players, period, made his first three-pointer, then missed his last seven, finishing with only seven, 12 below his average. He was 3-of-12 from the floor.

“Being able to run them off the (three-point) line and limit what they do best is something we did,” Cline said.

For a team that’s seemingly found and lost, found and lost defensive identity throughout this season, this seemed important heading into Big Ten play, a statement sort of performance defensively from a team that clearly needs to defend to win at a meaningful level this season.

“Everyone was locked in,” Haarms said, “knowing their stuff, calling it out.”

But as Painter said afterwards, Purdue beat Maryland in Mackey Arena earlier this season with a game-closing run of stifling defense, had a chance to carry it over to subsequent games and did no such thing.

Now, with the conference season looming, it has another chance, but the Belmont win offers more room for growth, as well.

Had this been the sort of stress-less win it seemed like it was bound to be most of the afternoon, Purdue would have left free of exposure.

Now, though, that Purdue won the game, Painter said he’s pleased in a roundabout sort of way that his fledgling team melted down for that fleeting portion of the second half, allowing Belmont to score 12 straight in the span of 1:38 to change the complexion of the game.

It provides some potentially valuable context moving forward.

“We lost our composure,” Painter said, “then regained our composure, hit the refresh button and were able to make some plays.”

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