Purdue Steamrolls Chicago State
By KEITH CARRELL
@BoilerColts
ISL Purdue Writer
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Coming off a poor rebounding performance versus Southern Illinois, Purdue was an all-out aggressor in a 111-42 win over Chicago State Sunday afternoon. The Boilers outrebounded the Cougars 55-26 and shot lights out to go up early before whole-heartedly slamming their collective foot on the gas in the second half. Although Purdue broke the century mark for the second straight game (the first time the program has done that since 1974), only four Boilermakers scored in double figures, led by Carsen Edwards’ career high 25.
The starters must have had a fuel additive tonight, because each one of them entered the game locked in and played brilliantly. Edwards scored 15 of his points in the opening half and chipped in three assists without a turnover, Dakota Mathias went four-of-five from distance on his way to 18 points and added six assists and two steals without a turnover, P.J. Thompson netted 16 points, and Vincent Edwards had a double-double with 15 points and twelve boards. The lone starter not to reach double digits was Isaac Haas, who played muscularly – aggressively grabbing rebounds and standing his ground on defense – chipped in eight points, six rebounds, and three blocks. Coming off the bench, Matt Haarms contributed nine points, seven rebounds, and four blocks while, former walk-on, Grady Eifert threw in nine points, six boards, and a steal.
Head coach Matt Painter shared how he felt Purdue responded. “I thought we did a better job rebounding and that’s what we want. I thought (V. Edwards) did a good job of getting to the glass.”
Two and a half minutes into the game, Purdue fans had a bit of a scare when Haas went up for a shot and was fouled by Patrick Szpir. Szpir, potentially to break his own fall, grabbed Haas’ left shoulder and brought the lumbering center to the ground. A flagrant foul was called on the floor and upheld on review, but no ejection was made. Haas got up looking no worse for the wear, and proceeded to sink both free throws.
Purdue’s desire to control the boards against the Cougars was no more evident than with 15:21 to go in the first half. Thompson fought for a rebound in the paint after Jale Stephens-Holmes’ missed a jump shot. Thompson quickly found V. Edwards for an outlet who then advanced the ball into the half court and passed to C. Edwards on the left elbow. C. Edwards quickly kicked the ball to Mathias in the corner in rhythm to drain an open three, which opened up an early ten point lead.
Highlights from tonight’s 111-42 win over Chicago State!#BoilerUp 🚂 pic.twitter.com/6nLIOXrbRp
— Purdue Men’s Basketball (@BoilerBall) November 13, 2017
The game wasn’t completely rose-colored for the black and gold, though, as Chicago State did score the first two points of the game (their only lead) and helped force Purdue into 14 turnovers. The highlight for the Cougars occurred with 12:21 left in the first half when Anthony Harris stole the ball from V. Edwards at midcourt, corralled the loose ball, and then drove to the hoop for a one-handed slam.
A lot of excitement entered for Purdue fans near the end of the opening stanza when walk-on Tommy Luce had a rare first half sighting, entering with 35 ticks left on the clock. After being welcomed into action by the loudest cheer of the night from the crowd, he immediately proceeded to foul Rob Shaw on the inbounds. On the final possession of the half with the clock winding down, Haarms found himself with the ball on the right elbow and attempted to sink a three, but missed badly. Fellow freshman, Nojel Eastern quickly grabbed the rebound and laid the ball in just before the buzzer to give Purdue a 59-28 lead.
Coming out of the break, Purdue kept their foot on the gas and poured more fuel onto the fire. The Boilers scored the period’s first 16 points and forced Chicago State to call not one, but two timeouts early in an attempt to stem the tide (Spoiler alert: it didn’t work). It wasn’t until nearly four minutes had passed before Travon Bell found the bottom of the net from distance to give the Cougars their first points of the half, but those would be the only points Chicago State earned until 9:42 was left on the game clock and Purdue had already built a 92-33 advantage utilizing a 33-to-three second half run to do so.
“It just goes to show us growing as a team, being more mature,” senior V. Edwards stated on Purdue not letting up. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, just don’t take the game lightly and we came out in the second half like the game was zero-zero and we were ready to play just like it was the first half.”
From there, Purdue cooled off considerably and only managed six points in about seven minutes of action when Haarms rose up and nailed a jumper to get Purdue across the 100 point threshold. Painter cleared the bench for the final four minutes which saw a lot of two-man game between Luce and Eifert. The latter had an all-around stellar game highlighted by a segment where he took a charge and a few plays later Luce had the ball on the left elbow and had an ankle-breaking crossover to get into the lane. Eifert’s man rotated to cover Luce, but Luce bounced the ball to Eifert for an open layup.
On Luce’s late game stylings, C. Edwards chirped, “Tommy got game,” and V. Edwards added that “he’s got some sauce to his game.”
Next Up:
Away: Purdue travels to Marquette for an 8:30 tip Tuesday night on FS1
Home: Purdue hosts Fairfield Saturday at 7:00 on BTN Plus
Quick Hits:
This game marked the debut of Robbie Hummel as an in-game analyst for BTN… Purdue’s defense was stringent, forcing multiple shot clock violations and holding Chicago State to only 14 second half points (the fourth fewest allowed by Purdue)… Purdue made 20 of its 30 field goal attempts in the second half and shot 61% for the game, but only converted 19 of 28 free throws (the starters went a combined 12-14)… Eden Ewing looked laggardly, committing four fouls and a turnover in nine minutes… It was the first time Purdue had shot at least 59% in back to back games since 1994… Both 100-point thrashings to open the season have come against schools that use Cougars as their nickname and mascot… This contest was officially part of the Battle 4 Atlantis as an add-on game to reach the allotment (four) allowed for regular season tournaments.
