Purdue had a stretch of nearly 8 minutes where it did not score in the first half.<\/p>\n
It had another stretch of nearly 5 minutes in the second half.<\/p>\n
It was 1 of 14 from the floor for a stretch.<\/p>\n
It trailed by 14 early and looked like a blowout could happen.<\/p>\n
Folks, this is one for the sheer guts pantheon. Purdue went on the road and had Trey Kaufman-Renn basically be a ghost, Fletcher Loyer score only 7 while limited to foul trouble, CJ Cox struggled mightily in a 1 for 9 night, and it had Oscar Cluff in foul trouble for a good portion.<\/p>\n
Didn\u2019t matter. Purdue won.<\/p>\n
As usual, Braden Smith had an incredible game, and given the deficiencies elsewhere on the court tonight he pretty much single-handedly dragged Purdue to victory. His clutch steal and score with 23 seconds left proved to be the biggest difference, and that play also showcased how disjointed of a game this was. He got smacked in the face on the layup, but it was somehow not a foul because DJ Carstensen is apparently blind and the dog didn\u2019t bark.<\/p>\n
Despite the foul trouble, Cluff was still huge in this win. He fnished with 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists, including a huge basket with 1:47 left to give Purdue the lead for good at 62-60. His free throw shooting down the stretch was also huge, as he hit three of four in the last three minutes. You also have to credit Jack Benter, who had a critical stretch with a three, a steal, and a big assist to TKR.<\/p>\n
This was such a disjointed game because the officiating was, to be blunt, onconsistent and awful. A lot of calls went USC\u2019s way, but the Trojans could not cash in by going an abysmal 5 of 14 from the free throw line. That was the difference in your ballgame.<\/p>\n
Honestly, this might be the worst Purdue has played all season except for a long stretch of the Iowa State game, but it still gutted out a much needed road win. If Purdue is to win the Big Ten, it is games like this that get you there. Down 60-57 with 3:23 left Purdue closed on a 12-4 run that included going 8 of 10 from the free throw line when it mattered most.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t get graded on pretty, but it is a huge win on a night where Purdue was at about a C-.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Purdue had a stretch of nearly 8 minutes where it did not score in the first half. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,16677],"class_list":{"0":"post-545480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-purdue-mens-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115918425798211648","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}