PURDUE

Insider: Purdue puts it all together to thump IU

Boilers win back-to-back games against top 25 teams for first time since February 2011.

Nathan Baird
nbaird@jconline.com
Purdue Boilermakers center Isaac Haas and teammate Bryson Scott celebrate a big lead over Indiana in the first half. Purdue hosted Indiana at Mackey Arena Wednesday, January 28, 2015.

WEST LAFAYETTE -- Purdue sophomore guard Bryson Scott succinctly summarized the emotional importance of Wednesday's 83-67 victory over No. 22 Indiana.

"They're Indiana," Scott said. "We've got to win against Indiana."

Fair enough. The Big Ten Conference's most-played rivalry brought a sellout crowd to Mackey Arena and filled it with its most exhilarating atmosphere in recent memory.

But the significance of the Boilermakers' second lopsided victory over their biggest rival in as many years surpassed bragging rights. It even trumps the potential impact on Purdue's still-thin NCAA tournament resume.

For the first time, Purdue summoned a near-complete performance against an opponent of the Hoosiers' caliber. The Boilermakers set a physical defensive tone early to impede one of the Big Ten's best offenses, then backed it up by asserting their post presence and finding big contributions off the bench.

"Like I said all week, this game was bigger than us," said junior captain Rapheal Davis, who led Purdue with 19 points. "I tried to express it to our guys and the guys listened and it was a good win."

Combined with last Saturday's 67-64 victory over Iowa, Purdue beat back-to-back top 25 opponents for the first time since 2011. An unranked Boilermaker team hadn't done that since 1997.

Both teams said the game would hinge on which one forced the other out of its comfort zone. That outcome clearly went to Purdue, which frustrated the Hoosiers on the perimeter without being victimized by Indiana's perceived frontcourt advantages in speed and athleticism.

"We wanted to stop them from getting in rhythm and being able to make those shots," said Scott, who scored 11 points off the bench after not scoring the entire Big Ten season. "When we took that away from them I felt they were out of synch. We've just got to do a better job rebounding and everything will take care of itself."

Talk leading up to the game centered on how Purdue's size advantage would hold up against Indiana's quickness, and vice versa. Purdue lost the rebounding battle for a third straight game, 34-31. Once again, it gave up a slew of offensive rebounds (19) and second-chance points (17).

The Boilermakers' early interior looks didn't produce many points. But the presence A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas established in the post eventually opened up driving lanes and the occasional timely 3-pointer.

In a critical first-half stretch, Indiana tried different zone defenses to take Purdue's 7-footers away. But the Boilermakers still got inside and exploited the resulting gaps in other ways, including Davis, Scott and others driving for layups. At halftime, Purdue had scored 32 of its 38 points in the paint.

"Any time people give that much attention to our post play, I think it opens up other things for our other guys," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "... Those openings and our guys' understanding of when to attack, when not to attack, really helped."

Just as importantly, neither Indiana's Troy Williams (eight points on 4 of 11 shooting) or Collin Hartman (two points, 1 of 3) really exploited Purdue's slower big men off the dribble.

Hammons lamented his rebounding failures. But he blocked a career-high eight shots, and Indiana was held 14 points below its season scoring average.

Indiana point guard Yogi Ferrell scored 21 points on 9 of 20 shooting. He scored eight points in the first eight minutes of the second half, helping cut what had been a 19-point Purdue lead to just 10 with 11:46 to play.

But the Hoosiers could not shoot their way beyond that point. Indiana finished 4 of 19 from 3-point range. James Blackmon (14 points on 4 of 13 shooting) and Ferrell combined to make 2 of 11.

Purdue built on a 38-27 lead by scoring the first six points of the second half and never surrendered control.

"We put two halves together with this game," Davis said. "We went into halftime thinking we were down 11. Being able to go in there and come out and make that run was really good for us."