The Purdue Boilermakers men’s basketball defeated the Northwestern Wildcats men’s basketball 81–68 on Thursday. The victory occurred in the third round of the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament at Chicago’s United Center.
Purdue put its stamp on Thursday’s third-round matchup early. For all intents and purposes, their contest with the Wildcats was over before halftime.
The Boilers led by 24 at the break and never looked back. Wildcat senior Nick Martinelli scored a game-high 25 points in his final college game, but the rest of Northwestern’s roster combined for only 33.
Purdue was led by its regular band of senior stars. Big men Trey Kaufman-Renn and Oscar Cluff pumped in 19 points apiece, and guard Fletcher Loyer added 14. All-Big Ten point guard Braden Smith dished out 16 assists, the most ever in a Big Ten tournament game.
With the win, the Boilermakers, who entered as the seventh-seed for the conference extravaganza, improved to 24-8 overall. Their reward for their triumph is a date with the second-seeded Nebraska Cornhuskers in the quarterfinals on Friday night. Northwestern’s season ended at 15-19.
Superstitious Boilermaker fans did not like the spot their team was in. Purdue was a seventh-seed for the fourth time in 2026, but they were looking for their first win in that spot.
The Boilers made sure that the losing trend, which happened in 1999, 2004, and 2013, stopped, and they did so early.
Purdue converted on seven of their first 11 field goal attempts, and they led 16-7 after just six minutes had been played. The lead grew to 31-13 with 7:35 to go in the first half, thanks to back-to-back three-pointers from Omer Mayer and Gicarri Harris.
The first half ended with the largest Boiler lead, 45-21. In the opening twenty minutes, Smith became the all-time leader in assists during conference tournament play. In fact, his nine first-half assists, to just one turnover, vaulted him into a tie, at least temporarily, for second place in NCAA history. For a brief time, he was tied with North Carolina State’s Chris Corchiani with 1,038 dimes.
In the first minutes of the second half, Smith took sole possession of second place with an assist on C.J. Cox‘s three-pointer with 17:28 remaining. That missile gave Purdue a 50-27 advantage. Smith now has 1,045 assists, just 31 behind leader Bobby Hurley.
Northwestern did not surrender easily, but its first-half hole was dug too deeply. The Wildcats outscored the Boilermakers 47-36 in the second half, but the margin was never below single digits. The closest the game was since the middle of the first half, 13 points, was the final score.
The main source of intrigue and suspense towards the end of the game was not whether Purdue would surrender their huge lead. Braden Smith closed in on Big Ten history, notably the record for most assists in a tournament game. Michigan’s Mike Smith held the mark with 15, which he garnered in 2021. Braden Smith passed to Kaufman-Renn for a short baby hook in the lane with 3:35 left, giving the Boilermaker guard the record.
After beginning the year as the nation’s #1-ranked team, Purdue went through many ups and downs as it slogged through an underachieving regular season. The Boilermakers lost six home games, and they had only lost four games at Mackey Arena between 2021 and 2025.
That part of the campaign is over, and everything the Boilers went through will only fortify their grit and determination going forward. Their experience is unparalleled, and those upperclassmen have been built for this month’s run. That starts against Nebraska on Friday if they want to keep their dreams of a championship season alive.
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