Rapheal Davis, Purdue finally get Michigan State
By KEITH CARRELL
ISL Correspondent
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. _ It wasn’t easy — it couldn’t be easy. But Rapheal Davis’ free throw late in overtime allowed Purdue to squeak out an 82-81 victory over No. 8 Michigan State Tuesday at Mackey Arena.
Now, some perspective on why the win was such a big deal:
Spartans leader Denzel Valentine is a legitimate Big Ten Player-of-the-Year candidate. He entered the matchup with a very talented group of teammates who were on a ferocious four-game winning streak that began with a nine-point victory over Maryland and ended with a 16-point shellacking of Michigan.
Then, there was Purdue’s history.
The Boilermakers had not beaten a top ten foe since 2011 (No. 2 Ohio State). They had lost to Tom Izzo’s Spartans seven consecutive times. Davis, a senior, had not beaten Michigan State since he arrived on campus.
“It was an unbelievable feeling,” Davis said after the game. “I’ve been telling (my teammates) since the summer that I just want to beat Michigan State.”
Here are the video highlights from the Big Ten Network:
Even with all that recent history questioning whether Purdue could win, the Boilermakers needed a signature victory against a quality opponent. Purdue had to win this only tilt against Michigan State to remain in the upper echelon of the Big Ten. No game is truly a “must win” until that team faces elimination, but Purdue ‘had’ to win this game.
Davis wanted this game, understood what it meant and represented, so he nonchalantly threw the rest of his teammates on his back and began the game on a tear unseen this season. By the time the game saw its first dead ball and media timeout with 12:46 remaining in the first half, he already had torched the nets with 13 points and three 3-pointers. My friend stated it about as well as anyone could about four minutes into the game, “Rapheal is Ray-feeling it.”
And it wasn’t just on offense, Davis was playing the most tenacious defense in quite some time, at least since shutting down Butler’s Kellen Dunham in December if not since last season. Davis was playing defense so closely that he didn’t have to defend on the ball, he was denying any entry whatsoever.
Purdue ended the first half with an eye-opening 46-30 lead. A lead fueled by an offense that was clicking as well as it has in Painter’s tenure and defense that made the Spartans uncomfortable (a feat in and of itself against an Izzo-coached team). By the halftime buzzer, Davis had 19 points, including 5-5 from three, A.J. Hammons had four blocks and three assists, and as a team the Boilers were 15-24 from the field, 6-8 from three, and 10-10 from the free throw line. In fact, the only real struggles Purdue had in the first half were turnovers, most of which were caused by post players or attempted entry passes to the post players and foul trouble for Hammons and Caleb Swanigan.
And that should have been it, the game should have been over, but this is Purdue and the Boilermakers are still going through their growing pains of inconsistency and an inability to close games out against quality opponents or elite coaches. But this was Purdue, this was a game against Michigan State; it could not and would not be that easy.
The 15-point halftime lead quickly escalated to 18 in the second half, but then the wheels began to get wobbly. Valentine (27 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds) and Matt Costello (11 points, 5 rebounds, three steals) began playing a beautiful two man game with screen after screen and an inane amount of pick-and-rolls, which often resulted in an open lane or an open shooter for Valentine to kick the ball out. The lead shrank to twelve and then Valentine knocked down a three, but Purdue was called for a foul under the basket after the shot so Michigan State got the ball back and Valentine knocked down another three for a six-point play to evaporate Purdue’s lead to six. The Spartans continued to chip away at Purdue’s lead until the Boilermaker’s proverbial wheels fell off.
The Spartans eventually took a four point lead and the story seemed to be a replay of the script that unfolded against Iowa on January 2nd. Purdue was not done and was able to fight back into the game, knotting it at 72 to send the game into overtime.
Davis’s rewrote the script to ensure Purdue came out victorious. With the game tied at 81 and time winding down, Davis was fouled on an exchange and headed to the line with five seconds remaining. Davis knocked down the first free throw as Purdue seized a one-point lead. Davis missed the second free throw and time expired as the teams fought for the rebound which Hammons eventually corralled. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t easy, and that’s the way Purdue seems to like it.
“Rapheal was unbelievable,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “Rapheal was really, really good in the first half and overtime. He’s resilient, he’s tough, he’s about us. Any time we’ve ever struggled, while he’s been here, he’s always been part of the solution.”
Now Purdue needs to use this win as a springboard for the rest of the season; a Big Ten regular season title is a long shot at this point, but focusing on getting a good seed and making a run in the tourney with this core group of guys may be Painter’s best chance at a Final Four while he’s at the helm for Purdue.
Quick Hits:
Hammons tied his career high in blocks with 8 (he also had 8 against IU last season)… Purdue had only 15 assists to go along with 16 turnovers… Hammons nearly missed a triple-double as he also had 19 points and 13 rebounds; he’s the first Boiler with three straight double-doubles since Carl Landry did it in 2007… Davis finished with 24 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals, and only 1 turnover in 43 minutes of action… Kendall Stephens saw some limited minutes in his first action since his personal leave from the team; he was also active at Maryland, but did not play… Valentine had 27 points, but had to work for those points as they came on 23 field goal attempts… Michigan State scored 17 points off of Purdue’s 16 turnovers and had 10 points in transition, two areas Purdue needs to improve… Of the Boilers’ five losses this season, each one has been followed up with a win… This was the first regular season overtime contest for Purdue since a heart-pounding 84-77 win at Penn State in January last season; Purdue lost in the opening round of the NCAA tournament last season to Cincinnati in overtime.
