Purdue shakes off Vermont, its own past in NCAA Tournament opener
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More: Edwards' 'special' performance pushes Purdue past Vermont
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MILWAUKEE — Purdue didn't come to this NCAA Tournament hoping to win just one game. But now that it has, a certain something could be felt afterward in its locker room.
"I’m in shock," said junior Vincent Edwards, part of a class that won its first NCAA game in its third trip. "I don’t think it's hit me yet. When I go back to the hotel and I wake up and I'm still at the hotel (in the morning), I think it’s going to finally hit me. I haven’t had that feeling yet since I’ve been here."
Thursday's 80-70 win for the Midwest fourth-seeded Boilermakers over 13th-seeded Vermont was not Purdue's ultimate goal this month, but it was an important step.
Now, the questions about past first-round debacles cease.
A cloud lifts.
"I think getting the monkey off our back is huge," said point guard P.J. Thompson, also a junior. "Obviously we didn't come to the tournament to win one game, but winning the first game is huge. You can kind of relax now a little … and now we don't have to be so tense, 'Oh, Purdue's lost two years in a row.' We feel pretty good right now. But like I said, we didn't come here to win one game. We're going to move on, learn from it and get ready for the next one."
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The last two seasons, Purdue's lost games it had all but won, first in overtime to Cincinnati, then in double-overtime to Little Rock. Perhaps you've heard by now.
In both games, the Boilermakers did enough to position themselves to win, then just didn't, in part due to heroic plays by the opponent, but in part by their own doing.
This time, Purdue put itself right back in that same position with some of its more difference-making elements.
When Vincent Edwards plays the way he did in the second half against Vermont, Purdue is a handful.
He came out aggressive, taking over a game Purdue only led at the half because Thompson pushed the ball end-to-end off an Edwards block, then pulled up for a jumper to beat the buzzer.
Edwards scored most of his game-high 21 points in the second half, including the first eight for Purdue coming out of the locker room.
Later, that combustible three-point shooting the Boilermakers have harbored all season long came up big when it mattered most.
Dakota Mathias made an important three from the left wing, after a Caleb Swanigan offensive rebound, with 5:38 left, pushing a five-point Purdue lead to eight. With 3:25 left, Swanigan kicked out to Thompson, who dished to Carsen Edwards for a corner-pocket three that did the same, after Vermont had gotten back within five.
The biggest of the three came with a little more than two minutes left, when Thompson connected from up top off Swanigan's kickout, giving Purdue its first double-digit lead, 76-65. That was the proverbial dagger.
Purdue's shooting mattered. It was 9-of-20 from three-point range.
Its size mattered, too. A lot.
Especially on defense.
Swanigan grabbed 14 rebounds — to go along with 16 points and four assists — controlling the backboard down the stretch. He blocked three shots — swallowed them might be more accurate — a couple of them in the closing sequences of the game. He and Isaac Haas both gave the Catamounts serious problems around the basket defensively.
Vermont hung in with Purdue, though, after Vincent Edwards seized control of the game for the Boilermakers early in the second.
Purdue clicked offensively most of the second half, the biggest key of the game being that after committing eight first-half turnovers, the Boilermakers were guilty of just two in the second half.
"It was just careless passes," Coach Matt Painter said of the first-half turnovers. "Some of them were post feeds, some were penetration where we just didn't make simple plays. We didn't have to go in there at halftime and talk about them doing something that was forcing turnovers. It was more unforced errors."
Purdue cleaned that up after halftime. But for an extended stretch, Vermont seemed to find ways to score, one way or the other, enough to keep within striking distance.
Its chance might have come with 12-and-a-half minutes left, when Ernie Duncan came off a screen and nailed a three to bring the Catamounts to within just one after Purdue had been up as many as seven.
Swanigan answered with a three of his own to push Vermont back, as Purdue did at every turn from there on out, securing that coveted taste of NCAA Tournament success that has almost literally slipped through its fingers the past two seasons.
"It's a relief," Mathias said in the locker room afterward. "All our questions have obviously been about the last two years, so it feels good, but I don't think we want to stop here."
