Breakdown: Purdue's loss to Clemson

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Matt Painter never wants to talk about who his team doesn't have.

But that being said, deep down, he had to know how stacked the deck was against his team Thursday night vs. Clemson, an 81-70 winner over the Boilermakers in the championship game of the Space Coast Challenge.

Purdue has known for weeks that it'll be without Invaluable veteran Eric Hunter — its best guard at both ends of the floor — for the first few weeks of the season at least. On Thanksgiving, it learned that at least for one night, it would be without promising freshman guard Jaden Ivey due to a foot issue Painter believes has been bothering him since prior to the Florida trip. (His status now is not known.)

Throw in the fact that freshman guard Ethan Morton is just back from a bout with mono and nowhere near himself, it made for a toxic combination, one that the Tigers turned the knife on happily Thursday evening en route to winning the event.

Purdue turned the ball over 22 times — bringing the Boilermakers' two-game Florida total to 38 — and Clemson parlayed them into 24 points.

That was the game.

"We didn't handle it well," Painter said of Clemson's pressure. "We have to do a better job of showing poise and taking care of the basketball and making simple plays."

The turnover issue was a team-wide affliction — every Boilermaker who set foot on the floor committed at least one — but Purdue's primary ball-handler, Isaiah Thompson, was guilty of five, a series of them early on that opened the door for Clemson to open a 13-point lead before halftime.

The sophomore said afterward he was intent to "learn from his mistakes."

"Being a point guard, you have to control the pace, control the game," Thompson said. "At the beginning of the game, I didn't do a good job of that and that led to some easy baskets for them and let them control the pace. It's my job to control the tempo of the game and take care of the ball and I didn't do a good job of that tonight."

But, despite the onslaught of turnovers, Purdue rallied after halftime, erasing that 13-point deficit.

With 12:41 remaining to play, Sasha Stefanovic's three-pointer capped a significant Boilermaker run and tied the game at 46-all. That triple followed those from Thompson and Brandon Newman, part of a second half in which the Boilermakers made eight threes of 13 tries.

But as they say, sometimes a team that has to expend a great deal of energy erasing deficits can run out of gas. Whether that happened or not, who knows? But Purdue quickly lapsed back into its turnover-riddled ways.

Clemson turned turnovers and at least one Ill-conceived shot by Purdue into transition buckets — the Tigers scored 21 fast-break points — that rebuilt a robust cushion, and that was that.

To Purdue's credit, after everything had tilted against it, it did enough to not get blown out in the final minutes, after Clemson had amassed its biggest lead, at 15 points.

But it wasn't nearly enough.

The turnovers were simply too much, but far from the only fatal flaw for the Boilermakers.

Preseason All-Big Ten big man Trevion Williams again never got going for Purdue, finishing 4-of-11 from the floor before fouling out after only 18 minutes. He's been getting the ball around the basket, but shots he so often has historically been highly efficient in making, they haven't been going in.

"The ball just doesn't go in all the time," Williams said, "and you have to deal with that. There were some points in the game I could have done better, but the ball isn't always going to go in. You have to accept that and fight through it."

All-ACC Clemson big man Aamir Sims scored 24 in a head-to-head matchup with Williams.

Offsetting Williams' struggles in the two games in Melbourne was the revelatory play of freshman Zach Edey. Coming off a 9-of-10, 19-point debut against Liberty, the 7-foot-4 center was 6-of-8 for 17 vs. Clemson, another team-high scoring night, though he did commit four turnovers.

Without Hunter and Ivey, Purdue asked a great deal of freshman Ethan Morton.

Morton, who'd only practiced a few times since returning from mono and was on a pitch count against Liberty, playing only 10 minutes, played 25 minutes 27 hours after Purdue tipped off against the Flames.

Morton did commit three turnovers, but handed out a team-high five assists, too. He seemed like an essential piece to the Boilermakers' offensive rhythm that tied the game in the second half.

"I'm really tired," Morton said afterward. "But I think that's good. That's the only way I'm going to get back in shape, playing and getting up and down (the floor). I think it was a good mental and physical test.

"There's not like a magic pill I can take to be back in the shape I was in before I got sick. it's going to take time."

Purdue, without Eric Hunter and now Jaden Ivey, did not have the luxury of affording Morton much time.

"He's not in very good shape at all," Painter said. "I commend him for what he did today. I really appreciate it."

Redshirt freshman Brandon Newman started his Purdue playing career strong. He scored 15 points in 37 minutes against Clemson, making 3-of-7 from three-point range. He scored 10 against Liberty and in both games, made impactful energy plays on defense. ... Purdue finished up a rock-solid 9-of-21 from three-point range, but started just 1-of-8 in the first half. ... Newman and Edey were named to the five-man all-tournament team.

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