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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Mo Wagner didn't let Purdue keep sole possession of the Big Ten lead for very long.
The multi-skilled Michigan big man scored 22 of his 24 points in the first half as the Wolverines snapped the 14th-ranked Boilermakers' six-game winning streak, 82-70.
"That was it," Purdue forward Vincent Edwards said, with a hint of exasperation. "It was Wagner."
Indeed.
The 6-foot-11 Wagner shot over and drove past Purdue's touted big men in a dominant first half showing, one that led to the Boilermakers' fourth Big Ten loss and the fourth out of four in which the opponent broke the 80-point mark. The Boilermakers have allowed an average of 85 points in those four games, one of those games being an overtime affair.
Caleb Swanigan dubbed the common denominator in those games as this: "Just letting teams get their heads up early."
Michigan certainly did that, riding Wagner's blistering first half — he nearly hit a career-high scoring mark before halftime — and shooting 65 percent for the half as a team.
Shooting over Swanigan and Isaac Haas, Wagner, a 38-percent three-point shooter prior to this evening, made four triples on a half dozen tries in the first half. When he wasn't shooting, he was facing the basket and driving past Purdue's superior size.
"It seemed like he didn't miss," Vincent Edwards said. "They got their heads up, they got going and like we talked about, when they're at home, they're a dangerous team shooting the ball."
Purdue knew what Wagner could do at the offensive end, but its aim was to "flip the matchup" on the gangly post with its brawn.
That didn't happen.
The Boilermakers rarely capitalized in the post in the first half — Swanigan didn't generate any of his first-half scoring against Wagner while Haas was 2-of-7 and struggled to handle a few entry passes cleanly.
"If we could have made some of those plays," Coach Matt Painter, "we could have lived with (Wagner's scoring)."
Michigan led by 15 at halftime, thanks to the contested, buzzer-beating three Duncan Robinson made from the corner, off an inbound. It was a gut punch of a shot for Purdue, but also one that summarized the first half nicely.
The Boilermakers had their chance at the start of the second half, as Swanigan scored on Wagner, then Vincent Edwards drove on Wagner for a foul and two free throws.
After scoring those first four, though, Purdue turned the ball over on back-to-back-to-back possessions, two by Swanigan. This, just as the Boilermakers found some defensive traction as they began to switch every screen after halftime and put Vincent Edwards on Wagner, which Painter admitted he wished he'd done to start the game.
Those turnovers were pivotal.
"When you get down like that," Painter said, "everything has to work for you."
It didn't.
After missing its first seven threes of the second half, Xavier Simpson, D.J. Wilson and Robinson each connected.
Michigan's lead peaked at 22 with 8:13 left to play.
Purdue had overcome some significant deficits this season, but didn't throw its best punch until it was pretty much too late.
A 20-5 Boilermaker run highlighted by some post productivity from Vincent Edwards and back-to-back threes from Carsen Edwards — coming off the bench, he matched Swanigan's team-high 18 points — made it just a six-point game, 73-67, with 2:13 remaining.
But on senior night, senior Derrick Walton ended it, making a leaning three-pointer with P.J. Thompson closely guarding him — Walton actually was standing on Thompson's foot when he shot — to beat the shot clock and push the Wolverine lead back to nine.
Michigan played well.
That was a central theme in Purdue's explanations post-game.
But the Boilermakers also left Crisler Center with much to lament, notably on defense. Michigan was good on offense, but Purdue played a role in that.
"We weren't very good collectively as a unit defensively," Thompson said. "Our bags were slow on their closeouts sometimes and our guards sometimes weren't doing their jobs in getting back in front of the ball. It was a collective thing, not everybody being on the same page. That got them going."
This was not Purdue's finest hour at the other end of the floor either. A team that was the Big Ten's best for so much of the season on offense isn't exactly looking the part right now.
Purdue shot 49 percent for the game, but it certainly bears noting that 37 percent of its scoring came after it trailed by nearly two dozen and not enough of it came when it needed it most — in the first half when Wagner was going berserk or earlier in the second half when that opportunity had presented itself.
The Boilermakers' 11 turnovers, on their surface, stand as an acceptable number, but in context, the fact that Purdue endured turnover sprees to open both halves may have mattered in this outcome, no matter how much Wagner scored.
"We didn't do a very good job defensively," Thompson said, "but we didn't do a very good job offensively either, so it was tough for us."
A win in Ann Arbor would have brought Purdue to the doorstep of a Big Ten title. That opportunity came and went, but there are more to come. Tuesday, Indiana visits. Then Purdue finishes at Northwestern. If it wins both, it's guaranteed a share of the title. If Wisconsin falls at Michigan State this weekend, then it might not even take that.
But, the scare-averted at Penn State coupled with the showing at Michigan — buzz saw or no buzz saw — reveal a team that's not played its best basketball the past 85 minutes or so.
"Obviously you'd want to have a better showing than tonight and we wanted to play better against Penn State, and we still won that game, but I'm all positive moving forward," Thompson said. "I love our team. I think we can still make a run to win this thing, and I think we will. We just have to win two games."
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