ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Purdue came to Alaska wanting a shot at Duke. The Boilermakers got their opportunity to face the perennial powerhouse Saturday and proceeded to knock the nation’s second-ranked team out with a stunning 78-68 victory in the championship game of the Great Alaska Shootout before a sellout crowd of 8,700 in Anchorage’s Sullivan Arena and an ESPN 2 television audience.

In so doing, Purdue moved to 4-0 on the season, marking its best start since the 1997-98 season, and prevented the Blue Devils from being ranked No. 1 after Connecticut was upset in the Preseason NIT.

"This is a big win for us, especially when you’ve got good guys that care about each other and a great coaching staff," assistant coach Cuonzo Martin told Gold & Black Illustrated on the court during the trophy presentation. "I think Purdue basketball is back without a doubt.

"We’ve got great team chemistry and guys who love to play defense. You just can’t beat that."

Guard David Teague grew up a Duke fan so beating the Blue Devils was extra special for the Indianapolis native.

"It’s a big statement win for us," Teague said. "It’s really going to help boost our confidence going into the rest of the nonconference season."

"This was a great game and I’m never going to forget it," point guard Brandon McKnight said. "It feels like I’m dreaming, but I know I’m not. I’m just enjoying my dream until somebody wakes me up."

The win was the Boilermakers’ first over a top-five team since they beat No. 1 Arizona, 72-69, in the 2000 Wooden Tradition in Indianapolis Conseco Fieldhouse.

"We had looked forward to the chance to play Duke," said Coach Gene Keady, who has led his team to two Great Alaska Shootout championships in four appearances. "It’s an honor to play a team like Duke because I have so much respect for (Blue Devil coach) Mike (Krzyzewski) because he’s done so much work for the game of basketball. To beat them is extra special because you respect him and his team so much because they play so hard."

"Purdue deserved to win the game," said Krzyzewski, whose team is now 3-1. "They played an excellent game. The kid (forward Chris Booker) who was just talking (to the media) was just outstanding, but I thought Lowe was the difference in the game.

"He’s such a powerful leader. He’s a really good player. I was very, very impressed with Purdue’s team, specifically Lowe. He’s strong and just gives his whole team confidence.

"Purdue is just stronger than we are," Krzyzewski added. "Gene has done a great job and you can tell that. They’re a veteran team and ahead of us right now.

"It’s good to play a team that is so well-coached, has such good kids and competitors like Purdue because that’s how you get better."

Lowe added, "This is probably one of the top five wins (during my career) because they were the No. 2 team in the country, but it’s just another win. They’re all the same to me.

"When I get a big win like a Big Ten Championship or a national championship, then I’ll start ranking them."

Lowe raised his game to another level and was named Most Outstanding Player-of-the-Shootout after averaging 18 points in the three wins. The senior captain scored a game-high 22 points against Duke, hitting 6-of-12 shots, including 8-of-8 from the foul line.

"I can’t think of any person more deserving (of the Most Outstanding Player award) than Kenny Lowe," Keady said, "because he’s gone through a lot of surgeries and worked his fanny off to get that shoulder strong. He can really play at both ends of the floor.

"I think people have kind of underestimated us, thinking we would have a hard time replacing (first-team All-Big Ten pick) Willie Deane, which we have, but Kenneth can take up that slack and other people can because of their maturity."

Lowe poured in 17 second-half points, hitting 5-of-9 shots from the field and all six of his free throws. He said he wanted to be more aggressive in the final 20 minutes.

"The coaches ran some plays for me to get me open after I only took three shots in the first half," Lowe said. "I’ve got to learn how to put two halves together."

After scoring 17 points in Purdue’s 75-63 win over Seton Hall in the semifinals Friday, forward Chris Booker added 20 points in the championships to go along with five rebounds and five impressive assists.

"I was just a lot more aggressive," Booker said when asked about his performance in the Shootout’s final two games as opposed to the first (when he scored six points against Texas State). "In the first game, it was my first time really getting out on the court and getting up and down since I injured my back on Sunday. I was playing a little tentative, a little uncertain of myself. Coach Keady pulled me to the side during practice and told me I had to let that go and to just go out and play. That’s what I tried to do in the next two games and it paid off for me."

Teague, who was 4-of-18 from the field, including 1-of-8 from three-point range, in the two previous Shootout games, was practically unconscious. The sophomore scored 19 points, draining 7-of-12 shots, including 3-of-7 long-range bombs en route to Player-of-the-Game honors.

"It was just a matter of time before David was going to break out," Keady explained. "He’s a very good shooter and hadn’t shot the ball well yet, but you don’t tell shooters not to shot … they just have to be patient and take good balanced shot because eventually they’ll go and they went tonight."

Purdue erased a 39-33 halftime deficit by scoring the second half’s first 11 points to lead 44-39. The Boilermakers hit 5-of-6 shots to start the stanza, while Duke missed its first seven shots of the half.

"Certainly the start of the second half was the key to the ballgame," Krzyzewski said. "They came out and their offense beat our defense, but also our offense didn’t help our defense. That set the tone for the rest of the half."

The Blue Devils cut the deficit to 49-47 with 13:38 remaining in the game, but Purdue scored the next five to increase its advantage to 54-47.

Duke got within 54-51, but the Boilermakers responded with back-to-back buckets to lead by seven again.

With 2:56 left, the Blue Devils made it a two possession game (64-58), but the Boilermakers made it 68-58 and Duke never got closer than seven down the stretch.

The first half was a see-saw affair until Duke ended the opening stanza with a 7-0 run, including a four-point play when guard J.J. Redick hit a three-pointer and was fouled in front of Purdue’s bench with 6.7 seconds left. He hit the free throw, giving the Blue Devils a six-point lead, matching their largest of the half.

Lowe said the locker room was fairly upbeat at the break.

"One thing we’re trying to do this year is to not get so down when we’re losing," Lowe said. "Everybody came in and said, ‘Get focused,’ because we didn’t think we were into the game mentally in the first half. We got our heads right and went out and played good basketball."

As the game wore on, Purdue played better defense and needed to after Duke had its way early on. Blue Devil forward Shelden Williams scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half (10 in the opening 5:04), all of which nearly came from point blank range and many came off of offensive putbacks. He had a game-high 13 rebounds (seven offensive).

"I came out in the second half and took it upon myself to keep him (Williams) off the boards and keep him from getting touches in the post," Booker said.

The Boilermakers also used a variety of players on Duke super freshman Luol Deng, who entered the game leading the team in scoring, averaging 17.3 points per game. Deng finished with 15 points, but was just 6-of-20 from the field, including 1-of-7 in the first half.

Duke guard J.J. Redick, the team’s top three-point threat, scored 14 points, but struggled from the perimeter, knocking down just one of his seven three-point attempts.

Duke shot just 38 percent from the floor (27-of-71), including 22.7 percent from long range (5-of-22).

"We just haven’t executed yet on the offensive end like we can or like we’re going to have to," Krzyzewski said. "That puts a lot of pressure on our defense."

Purdue, which shot 49.1 percent from the floor (28-of-57), including 55.6 percent (15-of-27) in the second half, was outrebounded 41-35, including 21-10 on the offensive glass.

Center Ivan Kartelo was scoreless, but did quite a job on the boards, grabbing a team-high seven rebounds, including four on the offensive end.

The Boilermakers hit 17-of-19 free throws, while the Blue Devils were 9-of-15 from the stripe.

Purdue will fly home today, leaving Anchorage at 9 a.m. (local time) and returning to Indianapolis at 9:40 p.m. (Indiana time). They’ll arrive back at Mackey Arena at approximately 11:30 p.m.

Purdue returns to action at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday when it faces Clemson in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge in Mackey. That game will be televised on ESPN2.

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