It was not pretty, but in late February, the Purdue basketball team isn’t looking for style points but rather just wins.
On Thursday night, it got just that, storming back from an early deficit against Minnesota, taking advantage of a technical foul and responding for an 84-76 victory at Mackey Arena. The win was the ninth straight for Purdue basketball, who keeps its undefeated home streak intact, improving to 23-2 overall, 12-2 in the Big Ten Conference.
“Two of our wins in Hawaii, we were down at the half and played much better in the second half. I thought their energy and attention to detail was much better than ours in the first half. They made more shots than we did, especially three’s. It reminded me of Alabama. Alabama hit 13 three’s in the first half and we were down two. Our guys kept scoring. Here, I thought we did a much better job in the second half defending,” Purdue basketball coach Matt Painter said after the win.
Early on, Minnesota gave the Boilermakers plenty of fits, as the Golden Gophers lit up the scoreboard with prolific shooting from behind the arc. Minnesota opened the first half shooting 9-of-16 from behind the arc, including four in a row en route to a 43-35 halftime advantage.
“They have depth in their front court. Their backcourt is really new, but they are starting to play well together. They are polished, they are making shots and they are guarding. That’s what you want. They’ve had a schedule they had to have because of all the newness… They are going in the right direction. Their light at the end of the tunnel is hope. They put themselves in position to win, and they didn’t,” Painter said of Minnesota.
Technical foul changes all momentum for Purdue basketball
The halftime break did little to cool the visitors, who stretched their lead to 10 over Purdue early in the second half.
And, then it happened.
On a night when Purdue basketball big man Zach Edey was hampered with foul troubles, it was a perceived non call by Minnesota coach Ben Johnson that changed the dynamics of the game. Upset Edey didn’t get called for a third foul with under 19 minutes to go, Johnson laid into the officials, drawing a technical foul.
The call against Minnesota’s coach fired up the Boilermakers, who went on an 18-9 scoring run to completely steal the momentum away from Minnesota, building a 70-60 advantage.
Minnesota, however, would not go away quietly, but a three pointer from Mason Gillis pushed Purdue basketball’s advantage to eight points. Braden Smith would put the Boilermakers back up by 11 moments later, as he scored a basket and free throw to give Purdue breathing room down the stretch.
“He’s just a competitive player. I wouldn’t trade him for anyone in the country. To only be in his second year of college, he does some amazing things,” Painter said of Smith, who finished with 16 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds.
Despite being hampered with fouls the majority of the game, Edey was able to finish with 24 points and 15 rebounds for Purdue. He now is five rebounds away from passing Joe Barry Carroll for the Purdue career rebounding milestone.
“We were able to get some stops, thought our guys did a good job with that. I think it just builds confidence. When you see the ball going in and the ball’s not going in for them, now you can get those runs and that is how we had the great second half,” Painter said.
Ohio State up next for Boilermakers
Next up for Purdue is Ohio State, who fell 62-54 to Wisconsin earlier this week. The Buckeyes fired head coach Chris Holtman following the loss and enter Sunday’s matchup at 14-11, 4-10.
Painter said despite all that has happened with Ohio State, the Boilermakers must remain focused.
“They have good players. They have have talented players. They have a really good backcourt. They have a really good front court. They, obviously, are fighting for consistency. It’s very unfortunate, consider Chris Holtman a friend, a peer, a colleague and a guy that is a really good person and coach. You hate that for him, but now a game has to be played,” Painter said.
The message to his team is simple.
“Just lock in on their personnel and just lock in on what they are doing. They are going to go out and play just like they did before. You can’t break down a system when you start in June and it’s February 15. They are going to do what they’ve done before. We have to prepare for that. We have a lot of respect for their guys, and just have to play better. It will be a tall task,” Painter said.
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