Women's Basketball: Purdue 76, Michigan State 71
Purdue women’s basketball survived a late-game charge to get a 76-71 overtime win against Michigan State on Monday night.
Head coach Katie Gearlds has led Purdue to an 8-1 start to the season, which is the best mark since the 2011-12 season when Sharon Versyp was at the helm.
From the opening tip, Purdue felt Michigan State’s defensive intensity. The Spartans were able to speed Purdue’s offense up and cause problems in the first quarter. Purdue shot just 33% from the field and was 1-8 from three-point range.
A large part of the struggles came from the lack of scoring by Lasha Petree, who was 0-3 from the floor. Purdue has had difficulty getting things going offensively when its leading scorer isn’t having her usual performances.
Senior Abbey Ellis provided a bit of a spark off the bench for the Boilermakers with 5 points late in the quarter to keep the deficit at three points.
Petree flipped a switch in the second quarter and put the Boilermakers on her back. The senior transfer scored 10 points in the quarter alone on a perfect 4-4 shooting mark from the field.
Purdue shot 70% as a team in the quarter but couldn’t quite pull away from the Spartans despite the hot shooting. Michigan State forced 15 turnovers in the first half, 10 of which came in the second quarter. Even with the poor ball security, Purdue did not allow a single point off of the 10 turnovers in the quarter.
The Boilermakers were able to hold Michigan State to 30% shooting in the quarter and scored a few timely buckets late in the half to take a 33-30 lead into the break.
Purdue came out firing on all cylinders in the second half. Led by 57% shooting, the Boilermakers outscored Michigan State 22-11 in the third quarter. The trio of Cassidy Hardin, Caitlyn Harper, and Jayla Smith all scored 6 points each.
Smith’s 6 points in the last two minutes of the quarter pushed the Purdue lead to a game-high 16 before a Michigan State bucket to make it a 13-point game heading into the fourth quarter.
Similarly to the Syracuse game last week, Purdue allowed its opponent to climb back into the game in the fourth quarter. The Boilermakers had their worst offensive quarter of the game, scoring only 8 points in crunch time. On top of 3-10 shooting, the turnover bug struck again as the Boilermakers coughed it up 8 times.
Michigan State took advantage of Purdue’s poor quarter and went on a run. After being outscored 22-11 in the previous quarter, Sparty closed out regulation with a 22-8 run of their own.
Lasha Petree hit a jumper with 1:43 left to give Purdue a two-point lead. The Boilermakers got a string of stops but couldn’t capitalize on the other end of the floor.
Michigan State's Kamaria McDaniel had a layup with 2.2 seconds remaining to tie the game at 63-63. Purdue had a great look for the game-winner at the end of regulation, but Lasha Petree missed a jumper and sent the game into overtime.
In the overtime period, Purdue picked up its play in a big way. The Boilermakers outscored Michigan State 13-8. Purdue hit all six free throw attempts in the final 65 seconds to sneak out of East Lansing with a victory.
Despite an eye-popping 30 turnovers by the Boilermakers, they were still able to pick up a road win against a Michigan State team that was ranked ahead of them in the NET coming into the game.
The Boilermakers had five players score 9 or more points, led by Lasha Petree, who finished with a team-high 18 points. Cassidy Hardin and Abbey Ellis also scored in double-figures with 11 and 13 points, respectively.
Petree has taken complete control of the primary scoring role as she has led Purdue in points in her last five games and six of the team’s 9 games overall. Abbey Ellis has also stepped up in a different role off the bench. Ellis was 14th in the country in points per game by players who have not had one start this season.
Katie Gearlds will have a lot to work on in practice this week to prepare for No. 20 Maryland on Thursday at Mackey Arena. The Boilermakers received votes in today’s AP Top 25 poll and could be ranked if they take care of business against the Terrapins.