Purdue stifles NCCU, wins fifth straight before finals

Purdue’s opponent on Sunday stalled so much, attempting to keep the game’s scoring as low as possible, that it ran itself out of the shot clock.

Often.

Six times, in fact, including three violations in the third quarter, when North Carolina Central scored only two points. Its tactics, along with Purdue’s defense, was a good combination for the Boilermakers (8-4), who won their fourth game in an eight-day stretch leading into finals.

“We’re definitely proud of what we’ve accomplished, four games and four wins,” said Ashley Morrissette, who led Purdue with a game-high 14 points in a 61-27 win Sunday in Mackey Arena. “But I think that everybody is definitely focused on finals (now); we’re going to buckle down for that and then once finals are over we’ve got another one Saturday.”

But Purdue, which was without three players on Sunday, can rest a bit after the busy stretch. It culminated with a relatively easy victory against the Eagles (1-6), who entered the game as the nation’s worst shooting team (344 out of 344) at 28.3 percent. Purdue lowered it, holding NCCU to only 23.5-percent shooting, including the two-point, 1-of-10 third quarter. It was ugly. The Eagles started the second half with back-to-back shot clock violations, then had another, their sixth, just before the start of the fourth.

NCCU, which ran a weave against Purdue’s zone, frequently passing without purpose until less than 10 seconds remained on the shot clock, produced the lowest opponent scoring output since Murray State had 25 in 2010.

“They tried to play a little small ball and we didn’t get frustrated by it,” Coach Sharon Versyp said. “We did a good job defensively.”

And the offense was solid, particularly because Purdue was insistent on going into the paint, driving for layups and trying to get into transition. Although the Boilermakers missed too often inside, including their first four layups, they shot better than 50 percent (27-of-53), putting four in double-figures. Morrissette had 14, with six assists and four rebounds, while Andreona Keys added 11 and eight. Bridget Perry and Ae’Rianna Harris, who was making her second career start, had 10 points a piece, combining for 11 rebounds.

The Boilermakers outscored the Eagles 38-8 in the paint, having more points there than the opponent did overall.

“We got better (today) in terms of our efficiency,” Perry said. “We also wanted to run a lot, which is good, but because they wanted to use almost the entire shot clock every play, it was really good for us to kind of slow down and execute and work specifically on our plays.

“And our transition was great.”

The Boilermakers pulled away in the second quarter, using an 8-2 run at the end of the half to turn a 10-point lead into 16, 33-17. In it, Dominique Oden scored on a break off a feed from Keys following Morrissette’s block.

Later, Morrissette and Miracle Gray scored consecutively when their converted their own steals into layups.

But the highlight — at least until walk-on Abby Abel scored her first career points on a late three-pointer — came in the third, when Lamina Cooper tossed the ball to Harris on a 2-on-1, with the latter grabbing the ball in mid-air for an alley-oop layin.

“Harris is playing very well, very, very consistent,” said Versyp, when asked about the freshman starting in place of the laboring Dominique McBryde. “I’ve changed the starting lineup here or there, there’s been different ones. She was able to win the tip. And she’s just been playing very, very solid and consistent and we’re looking for consistency as much as we can.”

The Eagles hit only 12-of-51 shots, just two three-pointers, and their missed four of their five free throw attempts. Purdue didn’t even have to foul, having only five in the game to tie for its second-lowest in program history.

The Boilermakers have won seven of their last eight, including the last five, after a 1-3 start. And they’ve done so despite injury — Tiara Murphy and Bree Horrocks are out the season with knee injuries and Nora Kiesler missed Sunday with a concussion — feeling like they’ve put themselves in as best position possible before finals. Two nonconference games remain before the Big Ten.

“Since that (start of the Cancun) trip, we’ve played great basketball, winning seven out of eight,” Versyp said. “But we’ve gotten better, we’ve gotten more efficient, we’re sharing the ball. I feel that our scouting reports, our defensive schemes, the last three or four games we’re really taking things away and that’s going to be a big key when we go into the Big Ten season.”

Membership Information: Sign up for GoldandBlack.com now | Why join? | Questions?

Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2016. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.