Purdue Drops Another Game After Leading By Double Digits 88-80

Boilers would be outscored 25-3 in the final 2:50 of each half

The Purdue Boilermakers ended their regular season with a loss that look awfully familiar over the course of the B1G season. A late first half run by an opponent that allowed the game to be closer entering the second half and a double digit lead lost in the second half to what is clearly an inferior opponent. Purdue played well enough to win a big road game but the same issues reared their ugly head once again.

Purdue showed they would be struggling with the Illini offense early on as they frequently allowed cutters to score at the rim on the several first possessions. The Boilers would finally settle into the game after Smith had turned the ball over on back to back possessions with the Illini up 15-17. On a transition opportunity, Smith snaked his way through the crowd to find CJ Cox on the right wing to his a three pointer. The freshman would have a solid game for the Boilers as he would finish with 7 points and 5 rebounds.

It was Smith who once again would come close to a triple double but it would come all for naut. Smith was dominating the game on the offensive end for most of the game until he just couldn’t covert late scoring opportunities for the Boilers. He would finish with 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 12 assists, coming up just one rebound short of the second ever triple-double in program history. His best assist was a more than half-court alley oop to Myles Colvin who soared in for the slam but would be called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim (yes, that official we all know as High Knees made the call).

That technical foul call with just 1:32 left in the first half and pushed the Purdue lead to 42-33. Following that, the Illini would go on a 7-0 with all the scores coming from Will Riley to end the first half at 42-40. It was, as mentioned previously, a story that had played itself out multiple times this season.

The Boilers would start the second half going right to TKR who had shown no Illini defenders could stop him once he had gained any sort of position inside. His first points of the second half would come from splitting two defender and laying the ball in. He would eventually finish the game with 29 points and 7 rebounds on 13/23 shooting. That’s a major performance from a player who was recently left off the finalist lists for both the Malone and Kareem Awards.

Caleb Furst, although he failed to score, played at an elite level within the role that Purdue needs from him. He grabbed 3 rebounds and 2 assists but his defensive effort on athletic wings along with extending two offensive possessions in the first half led to five Purdue points. His best play may have been coming off the backside help and blocking a lob attempt out of bounds. Purdue would end up getting a stop and going to score to push the lead to a ten point advantage of 63-53 with 11:46 remaining. The Boilers would not hold onto that lead much longer.

The Illini would go on a quick 7-0 and force a timeout with 9:34 left with the Boilers holding onto a 63-60 lead. The Illini would get a stop and then hit a three to tie the game at 63 with 8:47 remaining. A freshman would again step up for the Boilers and hit a big show as Smith passed up an open three for himself to find Harris open in the corner. That would lead to another 7-0 run by the Illini and the Boilers found themselves down 66-70 with just 6:44 remaining.

The Boilers would respond with a 9-2 run of their own to take a 77-72 lead with just 2:48 left. That run was sparked by a TKR layup after fighting through contact and scoring after getting the ball stripped from him and a Smith three pointer. The final score in that run was a perfectly executed baseline out of bounds play where Smith found Cox for a layup. After that, it was all Illini.

The Boilers would give up another big run, this time a 14-3 run, over the final 2:48. It was spearheaded by a Heide foul on a layup that was clearly not a foul but was called by an out of position official at half court (Jeffrey Anderson, Mr. High Knees, strikes again). That didn’t lose the Boilers the ball game but the inability to close out another opponent is a trend that plagues this team and is a fatal one now that we are in March. In fact, the final two and a half minutes for both halves combined, the Boilers were outscored 25-3.

Purdue will likely finish in fifth place in the final regular season standings but could still finish as low as sixth if Penn State can beat Wisconsin. The Boilers could also finish fourth with a Northwestern victory over Maryland and third if PSU can somehow also beat Wisconsin. Those victories would also come on the road to make it even more unlikely.

The loss dropped Purdue to 13-7 in the B1G which is incredibly disappointing for a group that was pick to win the B1G in the preseason, has the likely B1G Player of the Year in Braden Smith, and another possible First Team All B1G player in TKR. Those types of players need more help and they just didn’t get it tonight as the bench scored just 12 points but only 4 total from Cam Heide and Myles Colvin.