Purdue size, shooting keep Utah State at bay in Cancun

Front-page photo courtesy of Paul Sadler of Purdue athletics

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CANCUN - Paced by Dakota Mathias' blistering-hot shooting and Isaac Haas' sheer physical dominance, Purdue rolled in its off-campus Cancun Challenge opener, handling Utah State, 85-64.

The Boilermakers will face Auburn, a winner over Texas Tech, Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. for the event title.

Haas and fellow big man Caleb Swanigan largely did whatever they wanted, seizing ideal position around the rim time and again and collapsing an Aggie defense that boasts a more Big Ten-like front line than most smaller-conference teams, but was still no match for Haas' and Swanigan's power and ability.

"That takes over the game," said Swanigan, who suggested that Utah State might not have been as accustomed to the doubling and trapping Purdue demands because it does possess legitimate size. "We're going to get fouls and it changes the flow of the game and lets us set our defense. It just makes it really hard to play against us."

The Aggies had no answer for Haas, who piled up fouls, grabbed offensive rebounds early and finished with 26 points in as many minutes on 9-of-10 shooting.

"If I get it low, it's pretty much a bucket," said Haas, who's now shooting a cool 78 percent from the floor this season. "That's pretty much the way I look at it and I have to have that mentality if I want to keep playing the way I've been playing."

Mathias said of Haas: "He just overwhelms people."

So does Swanigan; he went for 15 and 10 rebounds.

Their authority on the interior jibed with one of those nights for Mathias, who could do virtually no wrong.

The junior shooting guard took 10 shots. He, too, made nine of them, six of them from three-point range. His last three - coming with 2:24 left as Purdue was trending toward a max lead of 25 points - gave him a career-high 25 points.

"It just seemed like every time they made a run," Coach Matt Painter said, "Dakota would answer with a big three."

Purdue started the game well, unlike its Cancun Challenge opener in West Lafayette against Georgia State. The Boilermakers led by a dozen a little more than eight minutes into the game, following a run of 10 straight points.

But in a half defined by runs, Utah State solved Purdue's stifling defense to open the game and answered with its own burst. With less than five minutes left in the half, Purdue's double-digit lead was gone, as Utah State tied the game on a putback with 4:42 left in the first half.

That amounted to its last stand, however, as Mathias answered with a three. Then, after a timeout later, Purdue closed the half on an 11-0 run to lead by 12 at the break.

To open the second half, Mathias drove off a ball screen for a layup, oozing confidence and aggressiveness, then buried a corner three over Utah State's zone. Moments later, after Utah State seemed settled after absorbing another Purdue run, Mathias buried a long three over the Aggie zone again, then scored on a runout off a Vincent Edwards steal to push Purdue's lead to 18. The game was, in effect, over then.

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