The Purdue Boilermakers never trailed in their Big Ten quarterfinal game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Friday night. The Boiler defense stymied the 2-seed Cornhuskers all night long in the 74-58 victory at the United Center in Chicago.
The 7th-seeded Boilermakers now face the 6th-seeded UCLA Bruins, which upset the Michigan State Spartans on Friday, in Saturday’s semifinal round.
Nebraska, which dropped to 26-6 in all games, was denied its bid for revenge. In their only other meeting this season, Purdue beat the Cornhuskers in Lincoln, 80-77 in overtime, on February 10.
The Boilermakers, now 25-8 overall, held Nebraska, which had been averaging just under 47% for the season from the field, to 39% on Friday.
Senior Fletcher Loyer led the Boilers in scoring with 19 points. All-everything point guard Braden Smith dished out 10 more assists, inching him closer to the all-time NCAA record.
Center Oscar Cluff has been the X-factor throughout the Boilermakers’ season. In each of Purdue’s seven Big Ten losses, he logged less than 30 minutes of court time. In other words, Cluff needs to be on the floor for the Boilers to be effective.
On Friday night, Cluff put in 35 minutes, and he was a force the Cornhuskers could not contain. The big man from “down under” set the tone early, converting on his first two attempts and giving Purdue a 7-3 lead less than three minutes into the game.
Nebraska kept it close and drew to within two points with 10:39 to go until halftime. Jared Garcia‘s three-pointer made the score 21-19. From there, the Boilers went on a 12-3 run, culminating with C.J. Cox hitting three free throws at the 5:52 mark, making the score 33-22.
Loyer drilled a three-point basket just 15 seconds before halftime, and Purdue went into the break with its largest lead of the game at 41-28.
The Boilermakers were extremely opportunistic in the first twenty minutes of play, scoring 17 points off of Nebraska turnovers. The Cornhuskers failed to convert a single point off a Purdue miscue.
In the second half, Purdue built its lead to 48-30 with 17 minutes remaining, but Nebraska steadily chopped away at the deficit over the next ten minutes. When Cale Jacobsen scored on a driving layup, the Boilers’ advantage was only 58-50 with 6:53 to go.
From there, the Boilermakers took full advantage of the opportunities they were granted. Twice over the next two and a half minutes, Purdue made good on second-chance attempts. First, Cox drilled a three-pointer on an assist from Smith after an offensive rebound, making the score 63-50 with 5:36 left.
A minute later, the Boilers delivered the dagger. Cluff corralled a Cox miss and swung it out to Loyer, who gathered and nailed a shot from distance to make it 70-52, capping a 12-2 run, with 4:12 left on the clock.
Starters Cox and Cluff followed Loyer’s point total with 12 apiece. Senior Trey Kaufman-Renn added ten, and Smith, the only starter not in double-figures with five, drew to with 21 assists of Bobby Hurley’s all-time mark of 1,076. Purdue is guaranteed two more games, one today and one in the national tournament, but a win at any point to garner another game may be all he needs.
Smith’s play on the court was not the only thing that impressed head coach Matt Painter. Following a mini-run by Nebraska, Painter called a timeout with 12:17 to play up by ten. The head coach usually has the first say when his team is gathered, but this time, the coach simply listened to his leader lead.
“He (Smith) was talking about the lack of communication in ball screen defense. So he was losing his mind because they weren’t calling left, right, whatever. We were trying to calm everybody at that point,” Painter said. “What he was saying, he was accurate. So sometimes it’s just shut up and sit there. Players that lead the right way and are talking about the things that we’re drilling and trying to get out there, it’s better coming from them. It just simply is.”
On the stat sheet, Purdue outplayed Nebraska in every which way. The Boilers outshot (45%-39%), out-rebounded (37-29), and had more assists (20-15) and steals (6-4), all while converting on 12 of 14 foul shots.
Purdue has the opportunity to settle a score with UCLA when the two teams face off on Saturday at 3:30 ET in the Big Ten semifinal round. In their only meeting this season, the Bruins shocked the then 4th-ranked Boilers at Pauley Pavilion, 69-67, on a Tyler Bilodeau three-pointer with eight seconds remaining.
The Boilermakers should not need any additional motivation to propel them against UCLA. The chance to play for a conference title on Sunday should be the necessary inspiration required.
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