Boilermakers tower over Spartans for fifth consecutive win
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Michigan State has a really good young big man, Nick Ward.
After that, injuries have left the Spartans with thin pickings in the post.
Meanwhile, 16th-ranked Purdue has two of the best big men in the Big Ten, one of them the best in the country.
For the second time in as many games against Tom Izzo's team, Purdue twisted the Caleb Swanigan-Isaac Haas knife for all it's worth, beating Michigan State 80-63 in Mackey Arena Sunday. It was Purdue's fifth consecutive win.
"Against those guys," Izzo quipped, "I just pray."
No answers came his way Saturday.
Swanigan went for 24 points, 15 rebounds and five assists (with just one turnover) and Haas totaled 18 points in just 19 minutes.
"It's just a matter of keeping it simple and scoring when we're one-on-one and passing when we're doubled," Haas said. "Once again, they didn't really double tonight and me and Biggie had a great night in the low post. (Defenses) have to respect our shooters at some point so they have to give up something."
The two Boilermaker big men were a combined 15-of-23 from the floor, a good deal of that productivity coming against the Spartans' overwhelmed backups, because Ward fouled out in just 12 minutes. Foul trouble rendered him largely a non-factor in Purdue's win in East Lansing a few weeks ago, too.
That put 6-foot-6, 230-pound Kenny Goins and 6-5, 220-pound Matt Van Dyk in tough spots.
"You have to use your size to your advantage against those smaller guys," Haas said, "because they're just trying to push on you, get you out from the block. It's just about taking one dribble, making a simple move and getting right by the rim."
The big men were part of a Purdue effort that wound up putting 23 fouls on Michigan State against just 12 on the Boilermakers. Izzo wasn't particularly happy about that disparity, given his repeated protests about "displacement" calls in the post, but Purdue enjoyed the advantage and maximized it, scoring 21 from the foul line on 25 attempts. The Boilermakers were in the double bonus less than halfway through the second half.
The post carried Purdue through another less-than-stellar shooting night. The Boilermakers didn't make a three in the second half and finished 5-of-15.
But, the threes the Boilermakers did make changed the game.
Swanigan buried one at the 12-minute mark of the first, then Spike Albrecht — who gave Purdue great minutes off the bench — and Ryan Cline followed suit thereafter. Vincent Edwards made a triple at 7:17 of the first half to take a four-point Purdue lead to seven on its way to double-figures at the break, thanks to the Boilermakers holding Michigan State scoreless over the final 3:12 of the half, part of another strong defensive showing.
"When they hit those threes," Izzo said, "that really changed things for us."
Vincent Edwards and Carsen Edwards scored on back-to-back and-ones early in the second half as Purdue built its cushion, amassing a lead that would later top out at 22.
Vincent Edwards was very good against the Spartans, aggressive off the dribble in totaling 12 points, but when it came time once again to salt a game away against a taxed opponent in the second half, Purdue went back to its size, the driving force behind a 51-percent shooting game for the home team.
"It's just how we play," Swanigan said. "We feed the ball inside and we don't go up to get fouled; we go up to score the ball. It's hard to play in the post, the hardest place to play defense because you're already close to the basket and we try to take advantage of that."
A 6-0 Haas run — Swanigan assisted on all three baskets — pushed Purdue's lead to 20 with 10-and-a-half minutes left.
It was another strong game from Haas, who dominated against Rutgers a few nights ago, then did the same against more formidable competition Saturday.
After an 8-of-27 three-game stretch, he's 17-of-22 the past two.
"When he's efficient," Coach Matt Painter said, "he's simple."
Swanigan, meanwhile, just keeps laying waste to all in his path.
"I'm not saying Biggie is the best player in the country," Painter said, replying to a question about Swanigan's national player-of-the-year contention, "but he's playing the best."
In the Big Ten, Purdue can probably say the same now. The Boilermakers will hold sole possession of first place in the league for a few hours — co-leaders Wisconsin and Maryland play Sunday — in the midst of a five-game winning streak.
"We've had that confidence throughout the year," Haas said. "We knew we were one of the best teams in the Big Ten, if not the best team. We just had to play our game, play Purdue basketball the way we know how to play it. That's honestly all it is. When we're locked in and do what we need to do, we have games like this where we're beating people by 18 or more.
"We didn't exactly have that this year. We let some cockiness get to us and we dropped one here and there and it ultimately lost us the Big Ten title in the regular season. But that's not going to happen this year."
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