Thursday evening in Mackey Arena, the Purdue Boilermakers put on an absolute masterclass of a performance in a 96-52 win over Wright State. Much like last Friday’s game against Indiana State, it was a brutal night for Purdue’s opponent from beginning to end.
Although Purdue was able to score the rock at will, it was a near-flawless defensive performance all-around. Wright State scored just 52 points on a putrid 30.5% shooting performance from the field, after coming into this game averaging 87 points per game.
It felt like every other possession, Purdue was getting their hands on the ball in the passing lanes and causing havoc. The likes of Ethan Morton and Eric Hunter Jr were relentless all night long. Purdue was also to hold Wright State’s leading scorer Grant Basile to a 3-14 shooting night for 7 points and coughed it up 7 times as well.
This was the best big man the Boilermakers had played all year, but he simply had no match. It will be interesting to see how the Williams-Edey duo plays against a large step up in competition against Armando Bacot and North Carolina.
Speaking of Purdue’s big man duo... boy did they have themselves a night. Trevion Williams had his best game of the year and put up a team-high 20 points on 8-11 shooting while grabbing another team-high 12 rebounds, both of which are season bests. Edey had nearly identical numbers, as he finished with 18 points on 8-12 shooting and 12 rebounds in his own right. Not to mention the third frontcourt player for the Boilermakers, Caleb Furst, who ALSO had a double-double in tonight’s win.
For those of you attempting to calculate that at home, the trio combined for a crazy stat line of 52 points, on a ridiculous 21-30 clip and 35 rebounds against the Raiders. It was truly a best-case scenario as far as the big men playing at their peak this early in the season.
Purdue’s shooters Sasha Stefanovic and Brandon Newman had their collective best games on the young season as well. The “Region Rat” duo combined for 27 points on 9-15 shooting from downtown. Tonight was big for Newman especially, who hadn’t had the best start to the season, but it was known that he would get going sooner or later.
Purdue did all of this, with an off-night by their leading scorer, Jaden Ivey. The soaring sophomore finished with a season-low 8 points, but his services were not in desperate need this evening.
Night’s like this are important, it boosts the confidence of everyone and even for guys who might not have played well to know that their teammates have their back.
There was no real weakness tonight for this team. In every single aspect of the sport, they dominated and gave Wright State no life whatsoever. Purdue just keeps on improving from game to game, even though they do not have much to improve upon.
That being said, the Boilermakers will now face their toughest test of the season in the form of the blue blood, North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday. This will be a part of the Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
There are a few matchups to watch in that one with Jaden Ivey vs. Caleb Love along with the one-two punch of Trevion Williams and Zach Edey vs. Armando Bacot. It will be a huge test early on in the season to see just how well the Boilermakers match up with the fellow ranked teams in the country.
We will have more information and stories on that matchup this week, but then the Boilermakers will be riding high into Saturday’s big-time game!