More: Edwards puts Purdue on back en route to Sweet 16

DETROIT — Dakota Mathias didn’t flash three fingers.

He didn’t pound his chest.

He didn’t shake his head, stick out his tongue, pump a fist.

The biggest three-pointer of Mathias’ Purdue career — one that pushed the Boilermakers to another Sweet 16 — didn’t warrant any undue celebration, the senior said.

“Been there before, hopefully do it again,” Mathias said causally in the locker room after a 76-73 victory over Butler. “I’ve always been calm and cool about that stuff.”

At least on the outside.

But inside?

“I was excited,” Mathias said with a laugh.

Purdue’s biggest shotmaker delivered when the Boilermakers desperately needed it Sunday, pushing a two-point lead into an insurmountable five-point one with about 15 seconds to play.

And it was on a play that Butler probably knew was coming — because it wasn’t one Matt Painter had just drawn up.

Though Mathias was reluctant to share too many details, like the name of the play or the exact design, it was one of several plays Purdue has for Mathias to pop to the top of the key and, in theory, get an open look off a screen.

What went into it, really, was perfect execution.

“It’s just a timing play,” assistant coach Greg Gary said. “They did a great job executing it.”

Mathias was standing near the left block with Vincent Edwards near the free throw line on the same side. Edwards curled to the top of the key, and center Matt Haarms — who’d just passed the ball to Ryan Cline on the right corner — slid next to that defender and screened. As soon as Edwards took off down the right side of the lane, Mathias streaked up from the other side, and Haarms set a down screen. Cline had effectively stuck his butt into his defender, giving him space, and waited. By the time Mathias caught Cline’s pass at the top of the key, his defender was still stuck at the free throw line, allowing Mathias to catch, twist his body a touch, elevate and shoot.

Pure.

Mathias said he knew he was getting the ball “right when I took off under the basket.”

“I knew I was going to get free, just the angle I had and how many times we’ve run that set,” he said. “It felt good, leaving my hands.

“I was waiting on that (opportunity) a couple times, finally got it and let it go.”

Mathias almost seemed to shrug off the attention given to the shot.

His first comment in the locker room after the game — when he was, naturally, swarmed by reporters — was how excited he was for the program, how he loved that so many of his teammates stepped up, how he was happy the team handled the adversity of losing starting center Isaac Haas. He talked about the team’s character and heart.

And tried to deflect nearly every question about himself, about that shot.

But, in the end, reporters kept pressing, so he relented. A little. In bits. A smile. Admitted he thought it’d go in when he let it go. Admitted it was one of the bigger shots of his career. Admitted the excitement within.

But, then, he gave credit to Haarms for the screen. To Cline for the pass. To the coaches for the play design.

“It took everybody to make it work,” Mathias said, almost sheepishly.

After the game, in a private moment, Mathias went up to Cline and thanked him for the on-point pass, Cline said.

Even though Cline’s response to the big-time shot was a solid, two-handed shove in Mathias’ chest.

Mathias insisted he has no bruises: Ryan Cline isn’t that strong, he joked.

“Obviously, as always, I put it right on the money where he likes it,” Cline said with a smile. “He came over, after the game, and gave me a big hug. There’s nobody more deserving than him to take that shot.

“It was pretty electric after that. It changed the game. If he misses that shot, you never know what can happen. But the whole team knew he wasn’t going to miss that.”

Edwards’ trajectory on the play after his hard cuts — which were pivotal to the play — led him underneath the basket in case he needed to get a rebound. But he knew it wouldn’t be necessary.

Too often, in those clutch moments, had he seen his senior teammate make that shot. On that play.

“Any time he goes left-right, I have the ultimate confidence. The left-right into the three-pointer with the leg stick-out is money,” Edwards said, demonstrating the leg kick while sitting in front of his locker afterward. “When he did that, I was like, ‘Yes, Dakota.’ I just watched it go through.

“Big-time shot. Big-time shot for sure.”

Haarms set the screen for Mathias with 10 seconds left on the shot clock — a tick under 17 seconds on the game clock — but the big man couldn’t recall anything about the play afterward.

He was told he set a screen — he figured he probably did, being called on to do that so consistently — but he didn’t remember it. Said he didn’t even realize the shot went up until he was almost at the basket — he’d charged there to get a rebound, if needed.

And, then, he saw the shot went through.

“Probably (Monday), I’ll know what happened,” Haarms said, actually apologizing. “Right now, I’m just a little caught up in the excitement.

“That’s a huge shot for us. Dakota is a big-time shotmaker, and he was confident in it and it went in and that really sealed the game for us.”

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