Purdue and Miami came into the second round of the NCAA Tournament both playing some of their best basketball of the season. A trip to the Sweet 16 was on the line in St. Louis and the (don’t rent from) Enterprise Center.
John Wooden Memorial Player of the Game (JWMPOTG): I can’t say enough about Fletcher Loyer’s game today. He was steady, he was reliable, he was the absolute rock that Purdue needed with the loss of CJ Cox. Loyer was animated on defense, demonstrative in the huddle, but most of all he was deadly from the field. He finished with 24 points on 6-7 shooting and a perfect 4-4 from three and 8-8 from the FT line. He added 1 rebound and 2 assists.
Coming into this game we knew that Miami was going to try and play downhill, they were going to rely on their athletes, and hope that the three point shooting could do just enough to bring them to a win. Throughout the first 20 minutes it was just about the perfect result for Miami. They were able to get into the lane at will all throughout the first half. They were being incredibly aggressive in the lane and the refs weren’t calling anything. It was an incredibly physical half with only 6 fouls called…COMBINED. That played into the hands of the Hurricanes who led Purdue with 16 points in the paint to Purdue’s 12. Elsewhere on the stat sheet things did not look good for the Boilermakers. There were 7 turnovers in the first half with 4 of them being committed by Braden Smith. Speaking of Smith, he was 1-6 from the floor. That kind of performance was a real problem and a reason that Miami was able to go up by 7 at one point. Another reason? Rebounding. Purdue was outrebounded 15-13 in that first 20 minutes. But as the song says, I need a hero. And a hero stepped up.
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CJ Cox was the man Purdue needed at the exact right time. With Purdue down 7 and 1:49 on the clock CJ Cox found the bottom of the net on three straight trips for the Boilermakers. All threes. And, with a Miami layup sandwiched in between, was enough to bring the Boilermakers back to even with just a few seconds left. Cox hit those three three pointers in just a span of 1:37. It should’ve sent Purdue into halftime with a tie game, but Miami hustled down and Tre Donaldson hit a layup to send the Hurricanes into the locker room up 40-38.
In that first half along with hero CJ Cox, Fletcher Loyer was 2-2 from three while Cox was 3-4. Combined that means those two were 5-6 from three. More of that in the second half could be enough to push Purdue across the finish line. It should also be noted that Gicarri Harris gave Purdue some nice minutes in that half with a nice block to stop a Miami fast break and then a 2-2 trip at the line. Trey Kaufman-Renn was a beast down low going 6-9 while also grabbing 6 boards.
I have to point out this beautiful assist before leaving this first half though. Early in the first half Braden Smith, assist king, had one of the nicest plays you’ll ever see. If you were watching it live you probably didn’t know what he was doing with the ball, and for a second Oscar Cluff didn’t either. I can’t do it justice with words so let’s just check it out in video shall we?
Just a wizard with the basketball. But it was going to take more than two assists to four turnovers to lead this Purdue team passed a very athletic and tough Miami team. With 20 more minutes to play it was time for the seniors to step up.
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With 17:04 left in the second half Purdue looked death in the face. CJ Cox, who was the star to end the first half went down grabbing his knee and stayed down. He was eventually helped off of the floor and was noted as questionable to return with a leg injury. He would not come back in the game. Purdue would instead rely on Gicarri Harris to take his place. And he did a great job in his role. He played 12 minutes, made his line shot (a three), and was aggressive on defense, exactly what Purdue needed. But the second half belonged to the JWMPOTG Fletcher Loyer. What an incredible game from the senior. He had 14 points in the second half alone including going 2-2 from three and 6-6 from the line. Overall in this one Loyer went for 24 points on 6-7 shooting including 4-4 from deep and a perfect 8-8 at the line. What a performance from the senior.
With Cox out for the remainder of the second half, and Braden Smith struggling to shoot the ball, that heavy dose of Fletcher Loyer and of course more from TKR was just what the doctor ordered. TKR went for 7 more in the second half to finish with 19 points while also grabbing 9 rebounds. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows in the second half though as Purdue struggled to rebound the ball which is what let Miami come back in this one. In the entire first half Miami had 5 offensive rebounds. In the second half they had 9. They only turned those into 9 points though and that was one major reason Purdue was able to hang on to win this one. I also want to point out that the officiating was…questionable at times including a foul on Cluff for gently touching an opponents back, a jump ball changed to a TKR foul, and an out of bounds on Smith where the ball didn’t even go out of bounds.
With Miami switching to a full court press Purdue did turn the ball over initially, but thanks to some nice communication and Loyer being in the right place, Purdue did enough to confound their press. Down the stretch, Smith would hit his free throws, 6-6, to keep Miami at arm’s length as the clock ticked down. For some inexplicable reason as the clock wound down Miami allowed 15-20 seconds to tick off the clock before ultimately deciding to foul one final time. Purdue went to the line to ice it away.
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Here are some more reasons that Purdue was able to win this one:
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After shooting 4-8 from three in the first half, Purdue held Miami to 1-11 from three in the second half.
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Purdue was 8-14 from three for 57%. Gonna win a lot of games that way.
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Purdue went 21-22 at the free throw line.
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Oh yeah, and they had Fletcher Loyer.
Purdue will head to the Sweet 16 for the third straight season. This time they will seek their fortune West like so many before them. #11 seeded Texas awaits them in the Sweet 16 with former Boilermaker Cam Heide in the starting lineup.
