Matt Painter Gets 300th Win in Victory Over IUPUI
By KEITH CARRELL
@BoilerColts
ISL Purdue Writer
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Mr. 300. A term generally reserved for baseball has meaning with, Purdue Head Coach, Matt Painter after Sunday night. The 86-61 victory over the visiting IUPUI Jaguars was Painter’s 300th as a head coach in the NCAA, including 25 at SIU-E. The win was also the sixth in a row for the Boilermakers, which in a typical pre-finals slate isn’t all that impressive, but those six games include victories at Maryland, against Arizona in the Bahamas, and at home versus the likes of Louisville and Northwestern; not the easiest schedule for an early season foray.
“It just means you’ve been around a little bit and you’ve had some (good) players,” Painter quipped when asked what the 300 win milestone means to him before he continued by sharing the credit. “It’s obviously a players’ game and I’ve yet to meet a really good coach that doesn’t have really good players.”
In their previous match against Valparaiso, Purdue had nine turnovers for the game; against IUPUI, the Boilers had eight by halftime (13 for the game). Many of those lapses came early in the contest, enabling a capitalizing team like the Jaguars to run out to score the game’s first five points en route to an early seven-six lead. Of the Jaguars’ first three made baskets, all seven points were off of Purdue turnovers, and two of the buckets were fast break opportunities.
The sluggish start for the Boilers shone brightest seven minutes into the contest when Dakota Mathias was a step slow getting out to Jaylen Minnett; Mathias fouled Minnett as he was pulling up for a three. Minnett knocked down all three free throws to knot the game at ten and then the Boilers got lazy on offense and began jacking up ill-advised threes which they proceeded to miss. The Jags leapt at the opportunity and Minnett buried a three and tried to hit another jumper but missed off the side of the rim, Vincent Edwards was unable to corral it before going out of bounds and the teams went to their benches for the under twelve-minute media timeout. Out of the timeout, TJ Henderson connected on a three, Elyjah Goss stole the ball from Mathias, and Henderson sank another quick triple in transition. Painter had seen enough and called a timeout to stem the tide; IUPUI had scored nine unanswered points and held a 19-to-ten lead with 11:12 left in the opening half.
Out of the huddle, Purdue went back to basics and pushed the ball inside, both by the pass and the dribble. Carsen Edwards struck first, decisively driving to the left post for an attempted layup where he drew a foul from Evan Hall. Edwards sank both free throws and then it was Isaac Haas hitting a short turnaround jumper from the left block. Vincent Edwards hit a short jumper, Mathias stole the ball and C. Edwards darted to the hoop where Haas found him for a fast break layup. And much like the Force in Star Wars, Purdue had finally awoken scoring eight consecutive to force an IUPUI timeout with eight to play. Over the next four minutes, Purdue continued to pound it inside and took a small 28-25 lead on a Matt Haarms layup.
Purdue missed their first eight attempts from behind the arc, but Ryan Cline put an end to that. Barely back into the game after a scary injury (appeared to be his ankle) that had him sub out seven minutes prior, Purdue used crisp passing around the perimeter to find Cline open on the right wing. The Jaguars were slow to rotate and Cline swished Purdue’s first three of the night with 3:32 to play in the half. With two to go, Cline sank another to give the Boilers a six point advantage. Minnett missed a three at the other end; V. Edwards rebounded and found P.J. Thompson to patiently walk the ball up the court, holding for the last possession. With about ten seconds left, Thompson kicked the ball to Cline on the right elbow, but the Jags had it well defended. Cline pump faked and put the ball on the deck, dribbled into the paint, causing defenders to collapse in, and kicked the ball out to Thompson on the left elbow where he knocked home a trey at the buzzer, giving Purdue a 40-31 lead at the break.
Highlights from tonight’s 86-61 win over IUPUI.#BoilerUp https://t.co/LG8OcQSOf3
— Purdue Men’s Basketball (@BoilerBall) December 11, 2017
The Boilers were laser-focused to start the second half and poured in shot after shot to score the first 14 points in fewer than four minutes, including threes from C. Edwards and Mathias. Extending to the end of the first half, Purdue had piled on 20 unanswered points in about six minutes of game time to extend the lead to 54-31 and put the game firmly out of reach. The Purdue lead would fall below 20 just once the rest of the way when Henderson made a jump shot to narrow the gap to 58-40, but on the next possession, C. Edwards was fouled and reestablished the margin from the charity stripe. The Boilers continued to find their shooting touch as C. Edwards and Cline sank a couple of threes, sandwiching a V. Edwards layup and capped off by a Nojel Eastern steal and clean layup to balloon the lead to 30 with nine to play.
“We just played hard and tried to get stops and we were able to get on a run (to begin the second half),” answered C. Edwards, who scored the first seven points to start the second half.
Eastern has struggled to find his way in the college game so far this season, but tonight flashes of what could be were fully put on display. This was Eastern’s best all-around game in the regular season, playing 16 minutes and contributing nine points, three steals, and a rebound (with one turnover). While he did still have the occasional lapse, like watching a low pass from Cline go right between his legs and into the IUPUI bench in the first half and turning the ball over while the team was still struggling to find their way early, but tonight he stuck with it. Immediately after that turnover he was able to race back and poke the ball out of Henderson’s hands. On another occasion Eastern was able to deflect a pass into the arms of V. Edwards. But, with five minutes to play, you could truly see the confidence growing as Eastern connected on a transition layup, sank a three, and hit another layup to score seven straight Boiler points.
In connection with the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi release, Purdue had a number of features for fans to enjoy before and during the game. Entering the game, fans who brought a canned food were able to receive a Star Wars themed player poster. Roaming throughout the concourse before tip many characters from the blockbuster series could be seen and fans were able to interact with them and get their photos taken. Even Pete got into the charade by donning a Jedi outfit throughout the contest. Prior to tip, the video intro for the team featured a brief trapezoidal scroll of the team’s latest quest and upcoming tilt before showing player intros with Star Wars music playing throughout and then the Boiler Brass got into the spirit and played a ritardando version of the fight song, a tribute to the Star Wars march, as the players ran onto the court.
Next up:
Away: Purdue travels to Bankers Life Fieldhouse (home of the Pacers) to face Butler in the Crossroads Classic Saturday (Noon, Fox)
Home: Tennessee State on Thursday, 12/21 (6 pm, BTN)
Quick Hits:
Jags Assistant Coach, Roy Hairston played for Purdue and led the team in steals during his two seasons with the program, earning Third Team All-Big Ten honors his senior season… Hall was called for a technical foul three minutes into the second period as he was getting chippy with Haas… IUPUI scored 13 points off Purdue’s eight first half turnovers… Purdue was efficient from the free throw line, with six players combining to go 16-17 (Tommy Luce the only miss)… Both teams were sloppy with turnovers (Purdue 13, IUPUI 18), but many were forced (Purdue stole 11 balls, IUPUI 7)… C. Edwards collected 27 points (along with 4 boards, 2 steals, and 1 assist), a new career high… V. Edwards earned his 5th double-double of the season behind twelve points and twelve rebounds (also with 3 assists, two steals, and a block)… Haas went 6-7 from the field and 2-2 from the line to earn 14 points… Cline had nine points, four assists, and three boards without a turnover… IUPUI had three players score in double figures (Maurice Kirby 16, Minnett 12, Henderson 10), but all from the bench; the starters combined for only 19 points… Haas won the tip to open the game and Purdue is now 7-0 when they win the tip this season… With the win, Purdue improves to 10-2 on the season.
