Wednesday’s Game: A Tale Of Two Halves For Purdue!
If college basketball games were determined after 20 minutes, the Purdue Boilermakers would have suffered a resounding defeat in Seattle against the Washington Huskies on Wednesday night. Thankfully, for all of Boiler Nation, the second half was allowed to be played.
Purdue dusted themselves off the deck and rebounded from a miserable first half to defeat Washington 69-58 at Alaska Airlines Arena. The win improved Purdue’s record to 6-1 in conference play (14-4 overall) and propelled the Boilermakers into sole possession of third place in the Big 10, one-half game behind undefeated Michigan State. Washington lost their fourth straight and dropped to 1-6 against Big 10 foes.
However, Purdue’s offense looked nothing like a nationally-ranked team in the first half but resembled the plot twists and turns of a classic Charles Dickens novel.
After scoring 104 points against Nebraska on Sunday, Washington held Purdue to 22 points in the opening half and did not allow the Boilermakers to drain a single three-point attempt, the first such time they did not hit a shot from distance in any half this season. Another anomaly on Wednesday was that Fletcher Loyer, who entered the game averaging 14.2 points per game, was held scoreless in the first half.
Both teams struggled offensively early on; Washington had almost as many turnovers (four) as points (five) over the first 6:20 of the game. Purdue could not take advantage of the Huskies’ slow start, only managing six points themselves over that stretch. After Myles Colvin’s layup gave the Boilers a 12-8 lead with 11:46 remaining in the half, Washington perked up and dominated the rest of the action before halftime.
A 10-0 run over the next three minutes, helped by Great Osobor’s five points, sprung Washington into the lead at 18-12. The lead grew to as much as ten before the Huskies settled for a 30-22 lead at the break.
Purdue was outscored, out-rebounded (17-13), and threw up worse shooting percentages than Washington in the first 20 minutes; the Boilermakers shot just 40% from the field compared to the Huskies’ 47.8%, and Purdue managed just two of six free-throw attempts.
To say the Boilermakers struggled to find their way in the first half would be like claiming water is wet.
However, head coach Matt Painter chose to see the glass half full when asked about his team’s play before halftime, noting the need for patience. Said Painter: “I thought we made some good decisions in the first half and we just messed up some things around the rim. We had some careless turnovers, missed some shots. But I thought we did some good things, but only had 22 points to show for it.”
“Defensively, I didn’t think it was that bad in the first half — holding somebody to 30 points on their home court. But we needed to be able to get some stops and just see the ball go in.”
Whatever Painter drew up on the board in the locker room at halftime certainly paid dividends for Purdue. It did not hurt that Caleb Furst decided to play his best game of the season.
Furst, a Fort Wayne, IN senior who came into the game averaging less than five points per game, scored a season-high 15 points, grabbed six rebounds, and earned four steals on Wednesday. But that is not what impressed his coach the most about his performance.
Painter was effusive in his praise of Furst’s defense, saying, “Caleb was great. I thought he was very active there. We knew what we were getting into when they were trying to roll into the post or had some isos over there on the wing. Just having active hands.
“He really helps us because he can switch ball screens for us and guard people of size. That luxury there really helps us. But I thought he did some great things. He made his free throws at the end. Was around the ball, more than anything, offensively and defensively.”
The Boilermakers began the second half with a 15-6 run, punctuated by a Furst jumper with 13:16 remaining to give Purdue the lead at 37-36. From there, they never looked back.
Purdue’s biggest lead of the second half was 15, and they could hold off a modest Washington uprising to win their sixth straight game.
Three other Boilermakers joined Furst by scoring double figures, led by Trey Kaufman-Renn, who pumped in 19 points. Junior point guard Braden Smith added 17, and Loyer, who was held scoreless in the first half, found his stroke and added 12 second-half points.
In the nightcap of their two-game West Coast swing, the Purdue Boilermakers face the Oregon Ducks on Sunday afternoon. Painter knows his squad is in for a mighty challenge and realizes the need to start stronger than they did in Seattle.
“If the tournament was right now,” said Painter, “they’d be a two or a three seed. (Dana Altman) is a fabulous coach. Just a really, really good coach. They have good players. Great team. We’re going to have to be better than we were tonight.”
The opening tip from Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene is set for 3pm ET on Saturday.
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