Purdue Ends Michigan State Run with B1G Win at Mackey
By Keith Carrell (@BoilerColts)
ISL Purdue Columnist
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue entered the game Sunday afternoon against Michigan State as arguably the hottest team in the Big Ten, winners of four straight and eight of their last nine (the one loss in East Lansing), but Michigan State had a commanding streak of their own, 21 straight Big Ten wins — including twelve on the road — dating back to the prior season. Purdue had won all nine home games this season and eleven straight in total, so something had to give. And that something, at least for the first half, was Michigan State’s will.
“My freshmen needed diapers today.”
-Michigan State head coach, Tom Izzo
A strong start against Michigan State wasn’t an aberration as the Boilers got out to a quick nine-to-two lead at Michigan State earlier in the month before crumpling down the stretch, losing 77-59. But this wasn’t East Lansing, this was Mackey Arena and the home crowd was as amped as they’d been all season, even more than against, in-state rival, Indiana the prior weekend. Purdue again got out to a nine-to-two lead against Michigan State, but this time, they kept one foot on the gas and the other on the Spartans’ collective throat.
By the time the first half ended, Purdue held a 37-19 lead. That’s not a typo, Michigan State was held below 20 points in the opening half for the first time since a December 2014 tilt against Maryland (14 points). Think about that, Michigan State hadn’t scored fewer than 31 in the first half of any game this season, and entering the contest they averaged 84 points a game while connecting on half of their field goals. Against Purdue, Michigan State made a grand total of seven field goals (31 attempts, 3-14 from three) to shoot a frosty 23% from the floor and it wasn’t just a poor shooting effort, Purdue’s defense played a leading role in Michigan State’s offensive woes. The Spartans were also outrebounded 23-20 and had committed six turnovers to Purdue’s two. Izzo was so dismayed that he was pleading with the refs for some help with the whistle as he backpedaled his way into the tunnel at the break.
Virtually nothing about the first half seemed aligned in the universe, but there it was unfolding in front of our eyes. The Spartans were struggling on offense and unable to rebound, Carsen Edwards had only three points after making one of his eight attempts, and Purdue’s bench uncharacteristically contributed 22 of Purdue’s 37 points. Aaron Wheeler was Purdue’s leading scorer with nine points, connecting on all three attempts from deep. In comparison, Michigan State received a grand total of two points from their bench — a pair of free throws from Gabe Brown.
“This time we felt like we really had something to prove, because I don’t think what we showed in East Lansing is representative of this team. Today we had the opportunity to show everybody… what this team is really about and I think we did that.”
-Purdue center, Matt Haarms
Even nearly doubling Michigan State’s score at the half and holding an 18 point lead, the temperature of the room was that of cautious optimism and not sheer dominance that was displayed on the court. It’s not like this was your Directional State College tune-up to begin your season, this was the #6 team in the country, a team that hadn’t lost since November (at Louisville). For Purdue to have any shot of maintaining the lead, they had to come out strong in the second half.
Enter Grady Eifert; the Senior forward willed Purdue’s start in the second half by out-hustling everyone else wearing a jersey. The Spartans started with the ball, but Eifert dove for the loose ball after Nick Ward lost control and dove past Ward to snag the ball and force a turnover. On the Boilers’ first possession, Nojel Eastern missed a layup causing another loose ball which Eifert again corralled, risking the skin on his knees in the process, to save the possession and give Eastern another shot at making a layup; this time it was good.
“They took it to us, we didn’t take it to them. I give all the credit to Purdue, from the crowd to their bigs.”
-Izzo
With Eifert setting the tone, the other upperclassmen joined in and started to heat up as Ryan Cline and Edwards netted a quick set of threes to extend Purdue’s lead to 48-26 just three minutes into the second half. But what once looked like no wrong could be done started to feel a wave of momentum shifting. Purdue began to settle into lackluster offense, turning the ball over or putting up ill advised shots just as the Spartans’ shot began to fall consistently. Wheeler gave Purdue their largest lead of the game at 23 when he threw down a two-handed putback dunk off of a missed shot from Eric Hunter, Jr. The score sat at 55-32 and Izzo signaled for a timeout.
Whatever Izzo told his team in that huddle with 13 minutes remaining in the game, it sparked the Spartans to put the clamps on Purdue while continuing to find their stroke offensively. Over the next four and a half minutes, Michigan State held Purdue scoreless while narrowing the gap to nine points (55-46), a 14-0 run and the (Mark) Monteith Theorem in full effect. Matt Haarms pried the lid off the basket and found a couple of points with a layup to extend the lead back to double digits, but the cushion was temporary. With just over five minutes remaining, Purdue’s lead was down to four following Aaron Henry’s score on a fast break.
Looking at Twitter, many Purdue fans had already begun fearing the worst, having seen this story written too many times before — Purdue looks dominant, but finds a way to lose. Purdue head coach, Matt Painter even shared that same sentiment, especially in reference to how well the Spartans play on the road, “They kind of get down six or get down 20 and they have you right where they want you. You’re nervous the whole damn time, to be honest with you. I was nervous until (the final) 30 seconds.”
That story, had to get shelved for one game at least as the Boilermakers weren’t done yet. Edwards used some veteran savvy to draw a foul on a three point attempt late in the shot clock and made the free throws to push Purdue’s lead to 63-56. The teams traded a couple points before Xavier Tillman sank a pair of free throws to make it a five point game with just over three minutes to play.
Izzo is one of the headiest coaches in college basketball and his situational awareness caused him to ask his team to begin fouling Eastern in hopes of slowing the game down enough to open the door for a Spartan win, but Eastern was having none of it. Although he’s struggled in the past, and mightily during his freshman campaign, he has become much more reliable from the charity stripe in recent games (16-21 in the last five games). His form may not be worth writing about, but the execution down the stretch secured the win for Purdue as he made six straight attempts, pushing the lead to eleven.
Following a made fade away from Cline and a missed three from Tillman, Izzo called off the dogs and owned the loss the final minute of the game. In a sign of mutual respect, Painter motioned to his team to eat the ball on their final possession, officially marking a turnover, with a slight disparity between the shot clock and game clock as Purdue walked away with a 73-63 victory, easily their best win of the season to date.
“We’re just going to cherish this, then wake up tomorrow and start thinking about Penn State.”
-Painter
Nothing may be more telling about how far this Purdue team had come this season than the Mackey faithful’s action (or rather inaction) following the win. An unranked team defeating a top ten program at home often results in a court storming to occur, but after defeating the Spartans, the Purdue fans merely applauded the efforts of the men in gold and took their more traditional exit through the concourse. Purdue started the season rockily, dropping five games through non-conference action (including one at Michigan) with an uphill battle to get an invite to the NCAA Tourney. Now seven games into the new year, this Boilermaker squad feels like a lock for the big dance, a favorite for a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament, and enters the easier part of their conference slate to finish the year — the only game remaining against a currently ranked team is at Maryland on February twelfth. I’m as guilty as anyone for holding a pessimistic outlook on post-season play for the Purdue team, but be it the emergence of Trevion Williams, the reintroduction of (usually) unselfish team ball, or something else, this Boilermaker train is leaving the station with hot coals, full speed ahead.
Next up:
Away: Penn State on Thursday, 1/31 (7 pm, FS1)
Home: Minnesota on Sunday, 2/3 (Noon, BTN)
Quick Hits:
It was the second straight home game on national television with CBS broadcasting the game — FOX had the game against Indiana… Purdue used a bumblebee look of free black and gold shirts laying on the seats for fans to wear during the game… The game started unusually with a botched jump ball that had to be redone… Evan Boudreax was suited up, but did not play — it was at Michigan State that the Junior transfer got injured and missed the rest of that game before sitting the next two contests to recover… That move signaled Painter shortening the bench to nine players in the rotation… Five players scored in double figures for Purdue (Cline – 17, Edwards – 14, Eastern – 12, Wheeler – 11, Haarms – 10)… Eastern earned a double-double as he also snared 11 boards… Michigan State outrebounds its opponents by more than 11 a game, but Purdue won the battle of the boards 42-33… Cassius Winston was held to seven points in the first half, but finished the game with 23, but missed four of his nine free throw attempts, including three in a row… The Spartans shot much better in the second half making 60% of their shots and 50% of their threes… Mackey Arena was sold out for the fifth time this year and of the five games remaining only Illinois has tickets unsold… The win marked the 28th time Purdue has beaten a top 10 team in Mackey, 7 of those have been against Michigan State… Edwards’ four rebounds gives him 300 for his career… The win (and Michigan State defeat) also had Purdue sitting just one game out of first in the Big Ten… Michigan State was without the services of Joshua Langford.
