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Post-game video: Players react to win over Butler
More: Mathias' shot finished perfect play | Haas still presence, just on bench
DETROIT — Saturday in Purdue's locker room, surrounded by the fallout of Isaac Haas' season-ending injury, Vincent Edwards was reminded that his teammates won two games while he was idled by a sprained ankle.
“So it’s time for me to return the favor,” Edwards said with a certain look in his eye.
Done.
The Boilermaker senior shook off crippling foul trouble to score 20 points on eight shots as Purdue beat Butler 76-73 Sunday in Detroit, earning a Sweet 16 date in Boston next weekend with Texas Tech. Also: A school-record 30th win.
The game belonged to Edwards; the final 13 seconds, though, were Dakota Mathias'.
As has sort of been Purdue's way in the NCAA Tournament, it led by 10 with 6:22 remaining, only to cling to a two-point lead with 1:56 left.
After back-to-back stops — more on the first of them later, as it pertains to Vincent Edwards — Mathias nailed a three-pointer from the top of the arc to essentially seal the game, at a stage of the game in which Purdue was badly struggling to score against Butler's screen-switching strategy.
The biggest shot of Mathias' heralded career put Purdue up five with 13 seconds left.
Mathias was asked in the post-game press conference whether it was the biggest shot of his playing career.
"It's 1, 2 and 3," he said.
Butler scored to bring it to three. Purdue got a stop and Butler fouled on the rebound.
P.J. Thompson missed the one-and-one, and Kamar Baldwin's half-court three at the buzzer caught rim and bounced off.
Purdue dug itself from a nine-point first half deficit and led by four at halftime, a lead it quickly — and briefly — surrendered early in the second half.
But Vincent Edwards' three-pointer with 12:42 left to play keyed a 7-0 run that gave the Boilermakers a 10-point cushion, 61-51.
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After Edwards made two free throws, then hit cutting Thompson for a layup out of a postup, the Boilermaker lead stood at 70-60, 6:21 to play.
Ryan Cline's three-pointer with a little more than four minutes left — he was basically unguarded — was an important, important shot.
"I caught the ball and there was no one around me," Cline said of the apparent breakdown by the Bulldogs, "I was kind of shocked in the beginning, so I just (dribbled) up and took it."
But otherwise Purdue struggled offensively once Butler started switching all over the floor.
After Carsen Edwards turned the ball over at the end of a middling possession, with the shot clock near expired, Sean McDermott scored to make it 73-71 with 1:55 left.
But while Vincent Edwards carried Purdue offensively, he also made the biggest defensive play of his college career.
The Bulldogs forced him into an ugly turnover, and Kamar Baldwin dashed up the floor looking to tie the game. But for the second game in a row, Edwards ran down his thief, took off off off his sore ankle and blocked the shot from behind, a play that stands just as significant in the final outcome of this game than any other, Mathias' three probably aside. And Carsen Edwards helped make it happen by getting back to disrupt Baldwin's path to rim enough for Vincent Edwards to catch up.
Vincent Edwards was the best player in a game in which Kelan Martin scored 29 for Butler, offsetting Purdue's All-American, Carsen Edwards, going 4-of-17 from the floor.
And Mathias made the biggest shot of the year for Purdue.
But this was as 1-through-10 a win as there's been for the Boilermakers all season.
First off, Thompson came up big for Purdue for the second time in three days in Detroit.
After closing the season in a shooting slump, the senior made 3-of-4 threes against Cal State Fullerton, then added 14 points — twice his season average — vs. Butler.
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In Haas' place, Matt Haarms was very good, totaling seven points, six rebounds and two blocks in a season-high 29 minutes.
“This one’s for Isaac, wishing him a speedy recovery," Haarms said. "This one’s for him.”
Playing his first meaningful minutes since probably Marquette months ago, Jacquil Taylor gave Purdue solid work in a role made even more important by Vincent Edwards' early foul trouble.
Grady Eifert changed the game with his hustle, grabbing five rebounds in 17 minutes, and making several important plays that went unrecorded in the box score. And it came, too, at a time when Purdue needed it most.
“If there’s a loose ball," Haarms said, "it’s 100-percent Grady.”
That's been the junior forward's M.O. all year, but especially since Vincent Edwards hurt his ankle late in the regular season.
"This is a dream come true," Eifert said. "Playing with these guys and playing for Purdue, it's been something I've wanted to do my whole life. There's no better time than March and it's great to be part of such a great team."
Because of everyone, Purdue's reached the NCAA Tournament's second weekend for the second time in as many years, with that 30th win that has eluded the program throughout its history, until today.
“Coach (Matt Painter) said, ‘When you come back in 20 years, you’ll be the able to say you were the only team in school history to be able to do that,’" Thompson said. "It’s a huge accomplishment and for it to happen to go to the Sweet 16, it’s amazing.’”
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