The Purdue basketball team sent a strong message to the rest of the college basketball world Friday night: Bring it on.
After dominating every aspect of the title game of the Baha Mar tournament on Friday against Texas Tech, the Boilermakers put the rest of the teams on their schedule on notice. They looked every bit of their #1 ranking, destroying the Texas Tech Red Raiders, 86-56, and remained perfect through their first six games.
In the semifinal game against Memphis the night before, Purdue needed a late-game spurt to salt the game away. That was not the case against Texas Tech.
Seven Boilermaker players registered double-digit point totals, which is something that has not happened in 20 years. They were led by Oscar Cluff, who scored 15 points and bullied his way to 15 rebounds in just 21 minutes of court time. Fletcher Loyer, who was named the MVP of the tournament, added ten on Friday to the 20 he scored in the semifinal.
For the first nine minutes of the game, both teams traded punches and leads. At the 11:02 mark of the first half, Purdue had no answer for Red Raider guard Donovan Atwell. He drained his first three long-range shots and forged his team ahead to an 18-17 lead.
Boilermaker guard C.J. Cox, who enjoyed a breakout tournament in the Bahamas, held serve with three made shots of his own for seven points during the first nine minutes. When Christian Anderson drilled a three-pointer with 7:05 to go in the half, Purdue led by just three at 26-23.
Head coach Matt Painter bluntly expressed his team’s early-game miscues.
“I didn’t think we did a great job early,” he said. “One time we just didn’t stay with Atwell, the one guy we weren’t going to leave at all. Then, Christian Anderson got a couple of ball-screen threes. We just weren’t up touching and ball-screen D and we had to do a better job.”
From that point forward, they did, and the competitive nature of the game ceased to exist.
The Boilermakers went on a ridiculous 20-0 run, and it was broken with 47 seconds remaining until halftime by another Anderson three-pointer. During that span, seven different Purdue players scored and Texas Tech committed five turnovers, and the Boilers led 49-26 at the break.
One statistical anomaly during the first twenty minutes centered around Purdue’s torrid shooting pace. They actually shot a higher percentage from three-point land (78% on 7-of-9 shooting) than they did at the free-throw line (2-of-3 for 67%). One welcome sight on the stat sheet for the first half was the wide margin in rebound totals enjoyed by the Boilermakers. They more than doubled up Texas Tech, 19-9, before halftime.
More of the same awaited the Red Raiders in the second half. Purdue scored the first eight points out of the break and did not allow their opponent to score for the first five and a half minutes. The lead never dipped below 25 points from then on, and it even stretched to 33 when reserve Aaron Fine hit a free throw with 20 seconds remaining.
Another bright spot for Purdue going forward was the fine play of center Daniel Jacobsen. The 7-foot-4 sophomore made all seven of his field goal attempts in the Bahamas, scoring 17 points and grabbing nine boards in just 25 minutes.
A highlight team-wise was the ongoing improvement of controlling the glass after struggling in that department in earlier games. The Boilermakers won the rebound battle, 43-25, the third time in the last four games with a margin of +18 or better.
Red Raider head coach Grant McCasland left the islands thoroughly impressed with Purdue’s talent.
“That was about a bad of a beating as we’ve taken ever,” said McCasland. “Give Purdue all the credit. They were so efficient in their scoring. I thought we had settled in enough early to get some composure in the 20s with a five-point game and then the floodgates opened in every way. They were getting rhythm shots and offensive rebounding. We got beat on the glass by 18 and when you start to get punched in the mouth like they did to us you have to respond and you have to do it quick, and we didn’t. They executed everything and had us on our heels all night.”
Painter acknowledged that Red Raider All-American candidate J.T. Toppin was contained to just 15 points, and that was fortuitous for his squad’s chances.
“We did a better job (of defending) as the game went on,” he explained. “J.T. Toppin’s a good player, man. Today wasn’t his day.”
Truth be told, it wasn’t any of the Red Raiders’ day, thanks to Purdue’s depth and tenacity on the defensive end.
After winning their fifth consecutive multi-team event, Purdue gets a few days off before their Black Friday matchup against Eastern Illinois at home. Tip-off is set for noon EST on November 28th.
Painter and his crew have things humming just right as they creep towards their Big 10 schedule looming in December. By all indications, the Boilermakers are on the right track, destined for March glory. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
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