Women's basketball - Purdue falls in WNIT Great 8 to Vermont 67-59

Purdue women's basketball saw its season come to an end on Monday night, falling to Vermont 67-59 in the Great 8 round of the Women's National Invitational Tournament. The Boilermakers' last season surge came to a close, snapping a two game winning streak with the defeat, ending the season with a mark of 15-19.

The Catamounts came into Monday's contest owners of the nation's second ranked scoring defense, allowing just 52.5 points per game this season. That track record continue against a Purdue offense that struggled to get much going outside of the opening ten minutes of the game.

The Boilermakers mustered 59 points against Vermont's suffocating defense, but were hindered by the inability to get the three-point shot to fall. Purdue was just 1-8 from beyond the arc, which included an 0-3 mark from Sophie Swanson and a 1-3 clip by Abbey Ellis.

Purdue's typical Achilles heel, turnovers, weren't much of a factor in the loss however. The Boilermakers coughed it up a respectable nine times, limiting Vermont to just six points off those turnovers.

After the opt out of Madison Layden and injury to Caitlyn Harper, just two members of Purdue's senior class were left standing in the group's final contest at Mackey Arena. Both Jeanae Terry and Abbey Ellis had proper send-offs for their last home game, while reaching a pair of milestones in the process.

In the final moments of the game, Ellis scored the 2,000th point of her five year collegiate career, over 1,100 of which came during her time with the Boilermakers. In her final game, she scored a team-high 16 points on 7-15 shooting.

Jeanae Terry reached yet another accolade, something she has grown accustomed to during her final season. The fifth-year point guard recorded her 202nd assist of the season early in the third quarter, passing Lisa Jahner for the program's single-season mar that was set back in 1987.

Despite the disappointing finale to their respective careers, Terry and Ellis went out making history on their home court.

A pair of Hoosiers made returns to their home state in Mackey Arena on Monday in Indiana natives Emma Utterback and Delany Richason. The former of which produced a strong second half showing to wind up ending the Boilermakers' season.

Utterback, one of four Vermont players in double-figures, scored a game-high 20 points on 8-17 shooting and added six assists for good measure. The 5'8" senior produced the eight 20-point game of her fifth-year senior season, the final of which may be the sweetest for the Indiana native.

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Vermont got out of the gates strong, jumping out to an early 6-2 lead just over two minutes into the night.

The typically defensive sound Catamounts then surrendered some early offense to Purdue, as the Boilermakers made five straight field goal attempts in less than three minutes of the first quarter. That stretch gave the Boilermakers a 13-10 lead with 5:01 left in the quarter.

Following an Abbey Ellis three to give Purdue the lead, the Boilermakers went cold on the offensive end of the floor, missing their next six shots. That scoreless stretch was snapped by Sophie Swanson and Abbey Ellis in the final two minutes of the quarter to give Purdue a 17-12 advantage heading into the second quarter.

Ellis put together one of her patented offensive outburst, dropping seven in the opening frame to pace the Boilermakers in scoring.

Purdue also dominated down low, outscoring the Catamounts 10-4 in points in the paint and having the rebounding edge 11-8.

The second quarter was plagued by lulls in scoring on both sides as Purdue and Vermont each had a pair of two plus minute scoring droughts heading into halftime.

The Boilermakers were able to keep Vermont from threatening the lead throughout the second quarter, maintaining 29-23 advantage at the break behind timely buckets from Abbey Ellis and company, while holding the Catamounts to 25% shooting in the quarter.

Three-point field goals were also rare in the first half, with both sides combining to shoot just 2-11 from beyond the arc.

Ellis lead the way for the Boilermakers with 11 points on an efficient 5-7 clip, while Alaina Harper, Mary Ashley Stevenson and Jeanae Terry all had four points apiece.

On the heels of a nightmare first half where Vermont miraculously found itself down just six, the Catamounts came out firing in the third quarter. Keira Hanson knocked down a pair of threes in the opening five minutes before Bella Vito hit two free throws to take a 35-34 lead at the 4:00 mark. Purdue was 2-9 from the field with a pair of turnovers during that same timeframe.

After Rashunda Jones and Jayla Smith scored to stop the bleeding and regain the upper hand, Emma Utterback had back-to-back layups to give the Catamounts a 41-38 lead less than a minute later.

The Catamounts shot a blazing 8-11 from the field in the quarter, led by eight points from Keira Hanson to take all the momentum into the final frame. Purdue was just 4-12 from the field, but six points from Rashunda Jones kept the Boilermakers' afloat in the quarter.

Jones hit a pair of free throws to even the score early in the fourth, but Vermont responded with a brief 6-0 run to pad its lead.

The Boilermakers were able to generate some offense via the charity stripe despite going over three and a half minutes without a field goal, but the Catamounts quickly wiped that away with another short 4-0 run to expand the lead to seven with less than four minutes to play.

Purdue did get the ball rolling in the last four minutes, going on a 5-0 of its own behind a pair of Jeanae Terry layups to cut the deficit to two with 2:32 to play.

Vermont then scored six straight points to seal the big time road victory and send them to the Fab 4 of the Women's NIT.