The Purdue Boilermakers have called Mackey Arena home since 1967, but they have never seen an opponent’s performance like the one that occurred on Saturday.
The Illinois Fighting Illini waltzed into West Lafayette and came away with an 88-82 road victory over the Boilermakers. Freshman Keaton Wagler scored 46 points, the most ever by an opponent in Purdue’s home building, thanks largely to 9-for-11 shooting beyond the arc.
The loss was the second straight for the Boilermakers, who lost at UCLA on Tuesday. Purdue is now 17-3 overall and 7-2 in the Big 10. The 11th-ranked Fighting Illini also own a 17-3 overall record now, but they leapfrog the Boilermakers in the standings with an 8-1 mark in conference play. The win marked Illinois’ 13th consecutive victory.
During the past five games, Purdue had started slowly in the first half, forcing them to regroup and grind out victories after halftime.
On Saturday, the Boilermakers enjoyed arguably their finest opening half of the season, especially against a highly-ranked opponent, despite Wagler’s heroics. The Illini guard scored his team’s first 14 points; the first basket from anyone other than him came at the 13:04 mark. David Mirkovic‘s mid-range jumper made the Purdue lead 18-16.
Hot shooting carried the Boilers in the beginning as they hit nine of their first 11 field goal attempts to take a 22-16 lead at the 11:14 mark. The marksmanship continued, thanks to two straight Omer Mayer shots from distance, giving Purdue a 28-21 lead with a little less than ten minutes to go in the half.
Oscar Cluff completed an old-fashioned three-point play with 6:52 left in the opening half. The Boilermakers held their largest lead of the game, 35-24.
At that point, Purdue went scoreless over the next two minutes while Illinois scored seven straight. The two teams traded baskets for the last four minutes before halftime, and the Boilermakers went into the break up by four, 43-39.
Purdue shot 63% from the field in the opening 20 minutes and was led by Braden Smith‘s eight points and seven assists. They could not shake the Fighting Illini, however, because of the one-man show they were defending. Wagler, a three-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week, finished the first half with 24 points, eight points above his average. No other Illinois player had more than four points in the first half.
Wagler was well on his way to a historic performance, but the Boilermakers in the second half were tracking a more dubious and significant mark of infamy.
Purdue became the first team in the Stathead database (20 years) to shoot over 56.0%, score 80 or more points, and have three or fewer turnovers–and lose.
What made the difference in the game was the Boilermakers’ inability to rebound, especially when the Fighting Illini had free rein on the offensive glass. Illinois had 13 offensive rebounds for 18 second-chance points. Purdue had only three offensive rebounds for two second-chance points.
For the game, the Boilermakers were outrebounded 33-19. That -14 margin was its lowest since the Fighting Illini outrebounded Purdue 37-19 on Jan. 21, 2020.
With all the factors working against them, the Boilermakers were still in a position to scratch out a win. With 3:49 left and Purdue ahead, 73-69, Cluff was called for a “hook and hold” Flagrant 1 foul, giving Illinois two free throws and the ball. The Fighting Illini’s Tomislav Ivasic made one free throw, then nailed a three-pointer, tying the game at 73.
From that point, Illinois’ next three possessions ended with three-point baskets. There was one each by Ivisic, Mirkovic, and Jake Davis, putting the Fighting Illini up 82-77 with 57 seconds remaining. Smith popped a shot from distance to make it a two-point game 12 seconds later, but Purdue would get no closer.
Smith valiantly kept the Boilermakers close, scoring 27 points and dishing out 12 assists. Trey Kaufman-Renn was the only other starter to score in double-digits, registering 12 points, but he only grabbed two rebounds.
Following the game, Purdue head coach Matt Painter explained how defending Wagler was so troublesome for his players.
“I thought he (Wagler) was fabulous,” he said. “He has the ability with his step-backs, even in switches, to take you. Pull back, get himself into a great rhythm. That’s something we talked about. Do we play out of a drop and veer back to it and then he’s going to dribble back and play one-on-one basketball? Or do we hedge it, get the ball out of his hands, and now we’re in rotations?
“He hit a lot of tough shots over us, obviously. Hats off to him, that’s probably the most impressive performance we’ve had in Mackey Arena from an opponent.”
Painter went on to compliment Illinois’ ability to rebound and realized the deficiencies his team needs to correct.
“You have to be able to rebound at the rim, you have to be able to rebound away from the rim,” he explained. “You have to be able to step to your man, get him on your backside and then go get the basketball. They did a better job than we did.”
The Boilermakers’ trio of big men, Kaufman-Renn, Cluff, and Daniel Jacobsen, accumulated a total of eight rebounds between them on Saturday. If all three of their season averages for rebounding were pooled together, they should amass over twenty each game.
Dennis Rodman, arguably the greatest rebounder in basketball history at 6’8”, once said that “every rebound is a personal challenge.” If that is the case, several members of the Purdue basketball team should take this aspect of the game as an individual obstacle to overcome. Until an improved rebounding effort is achieved, this team is destined to struggle through the meat of its Big 10 schedule.
The Boilermakers’ next chance to exorcise its demons comes Tuesday night at archrival Indiana. Game time is set for 9 PM ET.
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