Purdue shocked in double OT by Little Rock

PDF: Purdue-Little Rock box score

Analysis ($): Wrap Video | Four-Point Play | Blog (to come)

DENVER - It was a shocking loss, Purdue's double-overtime first-round punting from the NCAA Tournament at the hands of Little Rock, by a score of 85-83 after 50 minutes of basketball.

It was shocking to a Boilermaker team that had entered NCAA play playing some of its best basketball of the season and its confidence peaking accordingly.

It would have been really shocking had this not happened before.

The names and details and venue all changed, but the baseline story is the same as it was following last year's first-round exit against Cincinnati, also an overtime game.

There was one big difference, though.

"I don't think we were as in control of the Cincinnati game as we were this one," point guard P.J. Thompson said.

Indeed.

When Purdue led by 13 with three-and-a-half minutes left to play in regulation, the Boilermakers had this game won, just like they had the Cincinnati game won, up seven with less than 50 seconds left.

But it happened again.

Purdue's season-long composure issue - one that has so often manifested itself into clusters of turnovers - surfaced at the worst of times.

Trojan guard Josh Hagins made play after play, including a 30-foot three-pointer to end regulation and force OT and Purdue squandered multiple opportunities to steal this one in dramatic fashion. He scored 29 of his 31 points after halftime and 18 of them after Purdue held that late lead of more than a dozen.

"All the shots he shot at the end were contested. They fell for them," Purdue center A.J. Hammons said. "So congrats to him. We kept to our defensive principles. We just have to get our shots to fall and rebound."

With 21 seconds left in regulation, after Dakota Mathias made a then-crucial three for Purdue as it clung to its lead, Trojan center Lis Shoshi shot a three that caught all iron, then bounced high in the air and through the cylinder after he'd managed to pull his foot back over the three-point line at the last instant.

It was a lucky bounce, one of a few bounces that didn't go Purdue's way.

But Purdue shouldn't have needed bounces to go its way.

"If we take care of the basketball and we make some free throws and we take care of some little things," Coach Matt Painter said, "then we don't have to worry about that."

To end the first overtime, after Hagins tied it with a runner off the glass over Rapheal Davis with 17.8 seconds left, Vince Edwards was forced into a difficult driving shot that never got up on the rim to give Purdue a chance at a putback.

To end the second overtime, with Purdue down just one, Johnny Hill drove to the basket, similar to the way he did against Michigan State at the end of the Big Ten Tournament title game, but lost his footing. Hill said he thought he was hit on the arm and fouled.

"That's what (knocked) me down," Hill said.

The game can be dissected a hundred different ways, but can always come back to the fact that Purdue shouldn't have been in a position where any of the minutia mattered.

When Hammons made two free throws with 3:33 left in regulation, Purdue led 65-52.

But from there, Purdue turned the ball over three times, leading directly to seven Trojan points. Hammons and Edwards each grabbed offensive rebounds for what looked like easy putbacks but both shots rolled off.

But after Mathias and Shoshi traded threes - the latter more improbable than the former - Edwards made two free throws with 17 seconds on the clock to put Purdue up three.

With five seconds left, Hagins, too far behind the line for Purdue to foul him even if it wanted to, shot the deep three over Thompson that forced the first overtime.

Admittedly unaware of the time left on the clock, Edwards held up advancing the ball, denying Purdue a respectable chance to win it. Mathias wound up throwing up a halfcourt prayer that missed.

"That's a mistake on my part mentally," Edwards said.

Purdue made 22-of-28 foul shots for the game, but half those six misses came in overtime play, including a split pair by freshman Ryan Cline when both would have put Purdue up three. Hagins tied it with a quick two shortly thereafter.

This game came down to so many moments, so many little details, but in the big picture, it was about Purdue's weakness coming to light at the worst possible time and it's strengths being, well, anything but.

Purdue outrebounded Little Rock 52-45, but allowed 15 offensive rebounds, many of them the hustle variety or simply the luck of the bounce. Sixteen Trojan points came on secondary chances.

Center Hammons finished with 16 points, 15 rebounds and six blocked shots, but took just 10 shots and barely touched the ball down the stretch.

"You have to give Little Rock credit because they threw the kitchen sink at whatever big guy we had in there," Painter said, "and they made play on the perimeter and make some shots and plays. They forced our hand. We just didn't make enough shots."

Well, Purdue did, actually.

It made 5-of-7 three-pointers to start the second half, then a big one with 33.4 seconds left in regulation when Mathias connected for a short-lived four-point lead, just before defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory, by Hagins and Purdue's ill-timed failings.

It was a familiar story.

For the Boilermakers, far too familiar.

Visit Carpetland

Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2016. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited