Boilermakers Shuck Some Corn, 75-58
(Photo credit: Purdue Basketball)
Purdue headed out to corn country to take on the cellar-dwellar but still playing hard Nebraska Cornhuskers tonight. Purdue jumped out to a quick 12-4 lead and they were looking full of energy and it felt like it could be a laugher for the Boilers. However, this Purdue team is determined to keep every game edge-of-your-seat interesting for us and I, for one, appreciate the gesture.
Nebraska then went on something like a 11-2 run and took the lead back. Bummer. During that stretch – and others – Purdue did their ongoing baby-deer-learning-to-walk routine that is totally fine because this is a young team learning to do a lot and they’re super fun more often than they’re frustrating. The good thing is even when they’re bricking things around like that, you know the turn is coming.
And come it did. Jaden Ivey did Jaden Ivey things and Purdue raced out to a double-digit lead. As we inched towards halftime, Purdue looked like they were poised to put the boot to the Husker throat. And then, stop me if you’ve heard this before, they frittered away the lead.
By halftime it was only three, at 40-37. Then in the second half they continued to look a bit befuddled, only scoring six points in the first seven minutes of the half. They trailed with a little over 12 minutes to go and I began wondering if they might have a truly bad loss on the schedule.
And then the Boilermakers ripped off a 29-9 run to finish the game. Yeah, it went from 49-46 NU to the final of 75-58, Purdue in about 13 minutes. Can a 17 point road win over a 5-15 team feel like a close win? I don’t know how and yet….
Purdue had three guys in double figures. Ivey played a great game and had 15 pts, 7 rebs, and 3 assists to go with some super-fun plays:
Anyone need another @IveyJaden poster for the bedroom wall?
— Purdue On BTN (@PurdueOnBTN) February 21, 2021
Here you go! pic.twitter.com/gP7tjyhNoa
Our very own Wayne Night (AKA Newman) had ten points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. And Sasha began to look like himself again, putting up 14 points, including 12 on 4/8 shooting from three.
Purdue shot 47% from the field (fine), 31% from deep (not great) and only 50% from the line (yikes). Good thing it was Nebraska.
Purdue has just three games remaining in the regular season, one at Penn State and two at home vs Wisconsin and Indiana. At 10-6 and just 2 ½ games out of the lead in the conference, Matt Painter continues to pad his resume as a coach of the year candidate. The Boilers could obviously win all three of those remaining games but let’s say they go 2-1. That would put them at 12-7 in conference, 17-9 overall and in position to nab the four seed and the ol’ coveted double-bye. And, I mean, if we need to have a conference tournament, why not play as few games in it as possible?
Thanks for reading this far. Go in peace.
