No. 3 Purdue Overcomes Offensive Struggles, Narrowly Gets Past Maryland in 62-61 Win
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue basketball, once again, was plagued by shooting struggles when it welcomed Maryland to Mackey Arena. But despite shooting just 44% from the field and turning the ball over 16 times, the No. 3-ranked Boilermakers managed to squeeze out a win.
Senior guard Sasha Stefanovic led the team with 17 points, including five 3-pointers. He was one of four players to reach double-figures. Senior forward Trevion Williams notched three baskets in the final five minutes of play, finishing the game with 12 points on 6-9 shooting.
Sophomore Jaden Ivey, who made just two shots on the afternoon, scored a go-ahead basket through contact and made the following free throw to secure a 62-61 victory on Sunday.
“Most importantly, we just gotta get better off these games,” Purdue Ivey said after scoring 11 points for the Boilermakers. “Just countless amounts of mistakes we made today. We can’t do that down the stretch in March or we’re going to lose. We won’t be champions if we don’t correct this.
“But we just gotta get better tomorrow in practice, and I think this will help our team. Just keep learning from games like this. We just gotta keep building, that’s all we can do. Keep gelling together and just try to keep improving day by day.”
But the team nearly gave away the lead in the final moments of the game, turning the ball over on the baseline with less than 10 seconds left on the clock. On the inbounds play prior, the play was stopped due to the clock starting before a player legally touched the basketball.
Officials removed 0.3 seconds from the game clock, and the Boilermakers had another chance to get the ball inbounds. However, they no longer had the ability to run the baseline.
As a result, when Stefanovic attempted to pass the ball along the baseline on a spot throw for Purdue, possession was correctly awarded to Maryland with a chance to win.
“I said ‘are we redoing this play?’ And the time was different, and so I’m looking at our players to make sure they’re lined up to go where they’re supposed to go on the second one,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “So to me, if we’re redoing this, we can still run the base and throw the ball along the baseline. So that was my error.”
The Terrapins looked to get the ball to junior forward Donta Scott underneath the rim, but his shot was blocked by sophomore Mason Gillis. The play sealed a narrow victory for the Boilermakers, who only led for 10 minutes the entire contest.
At the start of the game, Purdue jumped to a 4-0 lead over Maryland, feeding sophomore center Zach Edey the basketball. If the 7-foot-4 big man couldn’t find a good look at the rim, he looked for his teammates. He scored or assisted on the first three baskets for the Boilermakers.
But as quickly as the team started, it fell into a shooting slump just as fast. Purdue was just 11-27 from the field, including 2-9 from the 3-point line in the first half.
Maryland graduate guard Fatts Russell helped the Terrapins lead for a majority of the opening period with 10 points and three assists. But their nine first-half turnovers allowed the Boilermakers to fight through shooting woes and retake the lead with less than two minutes before halftime.
Purdue took a 26-23 lead into the locker room at the break, scoring seven straight points to end the half. Both of the team’s 3-point baskets came courtesy of Stefanovic, who had eight points in the first 20 minutes.
Edey and Williams each added six, but Ivey was 0-4 from the field and 0-2 from the free-throw line in the first half.
“We were just very lethargic on both ends of the floor, but we were still able to limit them to 23 points,” Stefanovic said. “We just couldn’t get our offense going. We had good, open looks, but we just weren’t knocking them down.”
Maryland opened the second half on a 14-3 scoring run, and Purdue committed three turnovers in the first three minutes after the break. Ivey made his first basket with 13:15 left to play, a 3-pointer after the Terrapins took a double-digit lead.
Soon after, the Boilermakers erupted for a 17-2 run that included four 3-pointers. Stefanovic and senior guard Eric Hunter Jr. each buried two shots from beyond the arc in the scoring stretch. The team was 8-20 from deep to end the game.
“In that stretch, I thought we did a good job of just getting stops and then going on runs and making good, open shots,” Stefanovic said. “Finding people in stride where they were able to make easy jump shots.
“I thought we did a good job of handling that adversity early. Obviously, we played poorly, but any win is a big win for us.”
Even with Russell recording 20 points, nine rebounds and six assists, Maryland made just three shots from the field in the final 11 minutes of the second half. Ivey reached double figures for Purdue by making six of his nine free-throw attempts to help close the game.
The team wasn’t great for the good portion of 40 minutes, but it found a way to win a back-and-forth affair without relying solely on its offense. The Boilermakers are now 21-4 on the season and 11-4 in Big Ten play.
“You can dwell on that piece of it, and as a coach you definitely register everything that happens. And then you try to gauge everything we’ve been through,” Painter said. “The one thing that I think you sometimes don't get across is how good other players are. That’s the piece.”
Purdue will travel to play Northwestern Wednesday. Tipoff is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET.
Stories Related to Purdue Basketball
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- PURDUE TROUNCED AT MICHIGAN: Purdue's stay atop the Big Ten didn't last long after suffering its first blowout loss of the season Thursday night at Michigan. The Wolverines won 82-58 thanks to red-hot three-point shooting. CLICK HERE
- STEFANOVIC NAMED FINALIST FOR SENIOR CLASS AWARD: Purdue guard Sasha Stefanovic was named one of 10 finalists for the 2021-22 Senior CLASS Award. The award winners will be announced during the 2022 NCAA Men’s Final Four and NCAA Women’s Final Four. CLICK HERE
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