Purdue handled business on Thursday night, taking down the Northwestern Wildcats 81-68 in the third round of the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago.
It was Braden Smith’s brilliance (16 assists) and Oscar Cluff’s physicality (19 points, 10 rebounds) that set the pace for Purdue.
Purdue’s defense and offense were both working in the first half as it sets its sights on #2 seed Nebraska in the Quarterfinals of the Big Ten Conference Tournament on Friday Night.
But much like the only matchup between Purdue and Nebraska this season, Purdue saw a big lead dwindle in the second half against the Wildcats. But against Northwestern, Purdue caught a bottom of the conference Wildcats team without its starting center while playing its third games in three days. Northwestern never had the firepower to keep pace with an offense that continues to hum at full velocity despite one final brilliant performance from senior Nick Martinelli who played his last college game.
That won’t be the case on Friday when Purdue takes on the second seeded Nebraska Cornhuskers who took Purdue to overtime, erasing a 24 point Boilermaker lead in the second half of the team’s only matchup this season.
A look back at Purdue at Nebraska:
Purdue took an outrageous amount of threes against Nebraska. Nebraska’s overloaded, keep the ball out of the paint defense meant that Purdue got looks from the perimeter and it took them. 46 times Purdue shot from distance, and it wasn’t particularly efficient at them. Purdue made just 13 of those attempts, a mark below 30%, but part of why its three point shooting numbers were so high was because Purdue dominated on the glass.
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Purdue had 21 offensive rebounds against Nebraska, including 10 offensive rebounds from Oscar Cluff. Purdue out rebounded Nebraska 54-37 for the game. That edge on the glass was the reason Purdue could hold on in overtime against the Cornhuskers.
Nebraska didn’t do anything particularly well against Purdue, shooting just 12 of 32 from three, losing on the glass, and turning the ball over 14 times, but its defense tightened up late holding Purdue to just 80 points at the end of overtime after giving up 40 points in the first 20 minutes of action.
Pryce Sandfort scored 15 points, Jamarques Lawrence had 16 points, and Rienk Mast had 18, including nailing a couple huge threes late to even the game at the end of the second half.
Both teams are looking to make up for disappointing finishes to the season
Purdue was 6-7 in its final 13 games, accounting for all its losses in conference play after winning its first seven conference games.
Nebraska was 6-5 over its last 11 games after winning its first nine conference games of the season.
With the two dropping in the Big Ten standings, both teams will get a chance to gain momentum heading into the NCAA Tournament and potentially improve its seed in the NCAA Tournament where both teams are considered competing for a 3 seed.
Braden Smith’s monster night puts all-time assist record in sight.
Smith had 16 assists on Thursday, tying his career-high in assists. That means Smith is just 31 assists shy of Bobby Hurley’s all-time assist mark.
At Smith’s season pace of just over 8 assists per game, that leaves Smith likely needing four games to get to the mark unless he has another night like he did on Thursday. Nebraska’s deny the paint philosophy means there’s plenty of open shooters for Smith to find. If Purdue has a decent shooting night, Smith might threaten that 16 assist mark for a second straight game. Smith had 10 assists in the regular season matchup against Nebraska when no one for Purdue could hit a shot.
With a big assist game, Smith could be looking at setting the record in the Big Ten Tournament Finals or the first or second round in the NCAA Tournament.
