Northwestern University Athletics
Purdue In Review
2/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
For the first 20 minutes early on Saturday night at Welsh-Ryan, the `Cats and Purdue engaged in an old-fashioned steel-cage match. Neither side was willing to give, both sides were intent on imposing their will, and so -- inevitably -- their affair assumed a predictable ebb-and-flow. Seven times the lead changed hands, eight times the score was tied, and when this first half finally ended, the `Cats went to their locker room up a point.
Here, again, they were involved in a taut drama, and it appeared as if they were once more locked in a struggle that would not be settled until the end. But then the second half opened and, quicker than a hiccup, the script was flipped.
The Boilermakers got a basket from forward Vince Edwards and `Cat center Alex Olah committed a turnover.
The Boilermakers got a baby jumper from their own center, A.J. Hammons, and Olah responded with an offensive rebound.
The Boilermakers got a layup from Rapheal Davis and Olah missed a layup.
The Boilermakers got an open three from Edwards and `Cat coach Chris Collins immediately called a time out at 17:44 with his team suddenly down six and reeling.
It did not help. This Boilermaker surge would continue on for four more minutes and, at its end, here were the results. They had scored on their first nine possessions and, after missing their first shot at 13:48, had scored on their eleventh as well. They, through this stretch lasted for six minutes and 41 seconds, had outscored the `Cats 21-4. They had, with that, taken a 16-point lead and control of this game. "That was the difference in the game, that run right there to start the second half. They never recovered from that," their coach, Matt Painter, would say after they closed out their eight-point win.
"The game was lost really in the first six minutes of the second half. That was a real crucial stretch," agreed Collins. "I didn't like the way we came out of the locker room in terms of our intensity defensively, and Purdue's a good team and they're very physical and they're strong kids. If you don't match that level of intensity, if you don't match that energy, they can pound you. I thought that's what really happened the first six minutes of the second half...We can't have those stretches to let the game get out of hand. Then you're just climbing uphill like crazy and that's not really how we're built."
"It's unacceptable. That right there lost us the game," concluded `Cat guard Tre Demps. "Beside that six-minute stretch, we probably won the game. It just can't happen."
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The Boilermakers are predicated on their defensive grittiness and a pair of twin towers, the 7-foot, 261-pound Hammons and the 7-foot-2, 297-pound Isaac Haas. "We try to get the ball inside no matter who we go against," Painter would explain. "We just want to get their centers concerned about our centers instead of vice-versa. Anytime you can get big guys in foul trouble and they don't get off to a good start, I think you have an advantage with that matchup."
"I thought their physicality bothered Alex," Collins admitted. "He got in some foul trouble. He had some shots at the basket he normally makes. And Alex has been playing really well. I don't want to pin it on him. Give credit to their big guys. They're hard to play against because they're huge, and they're like battering rams. Every possession they put a lot of pressure (on you). They're hard guys to officiate and I say that in a complimentary way. They're so physical, and tonight they were getting a lot of those calls. I thought that kind of got us out of our game with the amount of free throws."
That was the other story line that cut through this game and here the numbers again tell the tale well enough. The `Cats, dependent on their guards, got 18 points each from Demps and freshman point Bryant McIntosh. But Olah, who fouled out after playing only 23 minutes, chipped in just four points and one rebound, and his backups -- Jeremiah Kreisberg and Gavin Skelly -- combined for four points and four rebounds and seven more fouls.
Hammons and Haas, in turn, combined for 26 and 10 while skirting any kind of foul trouble, and the Boilermakers as a team not only out-rebounded the `Cats by five. They also went 24-of-32 from the line, where the `Cats were a mere eight-of-11. "Sometimes you've got to tip your hat when a guy outplays you, or a team outplays you," Collins would simply say in the face of those numbers. "They outplayed us tonight and they're big guys outplayed us tonight."
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A year ago, on Feb. 8, Nebraska was 11-10 when it visited Welsh-Ryan. It escaped that night with a four-point victory and used that as a springboard, winning seven of their last eight regular-season games and earning a bid to the NCAA tourney.
The `Cats, losers of seven straight, are now 10-11 and play at Nebraska on Tuesday. "I was just thinking about it now," Tre Demps would say early Saturday night. "Nebraska was not playing good basketball and they came on our home floor and beat us and ended up winning like eight out of 11. That gives you hope, seeing other teams do it. You've got to keep fighting, you've got to keep working, and just trust the process.
"They did it last year, so why can't we?"
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