5 Thoughts From Purdue's 69-67 Loss to UCLA
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Purdue dropped its first Big Ten game of the season on Tuesday night inside Pauley Pavilion. A Tyler Bilodeau triple with under 10 seconds to play lifted the Bruins to a 69-67 upset victory over the fourth-ranked Boilermakers.
The Boilers owned a six-point lead with 1:32 to play, but a Donovan Dent triple, a steal and layup by Eric Dailey Jr., and the late three-pointer from Bilodeau were enough to sink Purdue. It was a rough night in California for Purdue.
Here are a few quick thoughts from the loss.
Critical mistakes late
Purdue looked like it was going to escape Pauley Pavilion with a win over UCLA after Trey Kaufman-Renn hit a shot with 1:56 to play to give the Boilermakers a 67-61 advantage. But UCLA didn't waver in that moment.
Dent went down the floor and knocked down a three-pointer. Then, on back-to-back possessions, Braden Smith was responsible for two turnovers, one leading to a layup for Dailey and the other giving the ball to the Bruins with just over 30 seconds to play.
Bilodeau hit the shot and a three-pointer from CJ Cox at the buzzer was off the mark.
Not only were those two turnovers big, but Purdue got lost defensively on the final possession, leading to an open three-pointer for Bilodeau.
No answer for Dent
Most nights, Smith is the best point guard in college basketball. On Tuesday, though, that title belonged to Dent. The UCLA guard and former Mountain West Player of the Year went off on the Boilermakers.
The senior guard ended the game with 23 points on 10-of-18 shooting. He also dished out 13 assists, blocked three shots, and had one steal in the game. The guard was able to get two feet into the painted area frequently, carving up Purdue's defense.
Simply put, the Boilermakers had no answer for Dent on Tuesday night.
Cox kept the Boilers afloat
The sophomore guard deserves a lot of credit for his effort on Tuesday night. Without Cox's performance, Purdue wouldn't have even been in a position to win the game.
Cox started the game by scoring the first five points for the Boilermakers. He then added seven shortly after halftime, after Purdue got behind early out of the break. By the end of the night, the guard had 16 points, five rebounds, and four assists.
Once again, Cox was the best defender on the floor and was tasked with slowing down Dent. He wasn't able to keep the UCLA guard in check much, but he did produce at a high level offensively.
Three-point struggles
It seemed like Purdue got a lot of open looks from behind the three-point line but failed to take advantage of those opportunities. As a team, the Boilers connected on just 7-of-27 attempts from deep.
Fletcher Loyer had a particularly rough night, going 2-of-10 from the floor and 1-of-6 from distance. Smith was 2-of-6, Cox was 2-of-5, and Harris was just 1-of-4. Basically, nobody was in much of a rhythm from behind the arc.
UCLA's first half run
We made it this far without mentioning UCLA's furious run to close out the first half, which was probably the difference in the game. Purdue jumped out to a 27-15 lead and was in complete control at the 7:24 mark in the first half.
After a Mick Cronin timeout, the Bruins went on a 17-5 run to close out the half and tie the game going into halftime. That gave the Bruins a lot of confidence entering the second half. Had Purdue delivered some critical blows at that time, perhaps it could have stolen UCLA's spirit.
Not only were the Bruins hitting shots in that stretch, but they were also blocking shots. UCLA ended the half with six blocked shots, causing a lot of hesitation on Purdue's end at times. The Bruins ended the game with eight blocks.
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Dustin Schutte is the publisher of Purdue Boilermakers on SI and has spent more than a decade working in sports journalism. His career began in 2013, when he covered Big Ten football. He remained in that role for eight years before working at On SI to cover the Boilermakers. Dustin graduated from Manchester University in Indiana in 2010, where he played for the men's tennis team.
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