#1 Purdue 82, NC State 72 OT - Boilers, Barely

Trevion Williams had 22, 12 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 blocks, and 2 steals for Coach Painter’s #1 ranked Boilers against NC State in the Barclays Center.

Purdue needed every bucket, every rebound, and every assist to push this game to overtime and beat the Wolfpack 82-72.

Jaden Ivey played a game high 40 minutes and tied Williams with 22 points.

At the start of this week, Purdue’s fans and team had never felt higher. Literally. They were ranked #1 for the first time in program history. They had two winnable games and a stretch of five games against teams with a better than 80% win projection by KenPom.

Instead of a celebration, Purdue’s team got their first loss in their first home game against Rutgers on Thursday.

Instead of coming out like a team with something to prove, the Boilers couldn’t buy a bucket in the first half against NC State.

With both teams playing in the Brooklyn Nets arena, one team looked like they belonged on the big stage, and the #1 ranked Boilers looked like a team ready for a free fall.

They trailed most the first half. Then the lead extended to double-digits in the second half.

Dereaon Seabron was a problem all night for Purdue’s guards. He used his height and attacked the rim. He finished the game with 18 points and made all 6 of his free throw attempts.

Terquavion Smith provided Seabron with support, knocking down 3 three-pointers and leading NC State with 21 points.

It took an absolutely historic effort from Trevion Williams to keep Purdue in the game. Tre was Purdue’s best scorer, best passer, best rebounder, and best defender in a game where they struggled to do any of those things well. He fell just one assist shy of Purdue’s first trible-double since 1977 when Joe Barry Carroll did it.

But Tre needed help, and it came in the form of Sasha Stefanovic who had a dreadful first half. He went scoreless in the first period and a good half of the second.

Then he got to the line, knocking some dust off his shot and getting him into a rhythm.

His second free throw with 2:19 left int he game brought Purdue within 4, 62-58.

His first basket of the game was a vintage three-point on the move, coming up from the paint, he used Trevion Williams’ body for a screen at the top of the arc, curled around it, and took Tre’s slightly off mark pass and splashed in a three that pulled Purdue into a one possession game, 64-61 with 1:36 left.

Williams did the rest of the work the next possession to tie the game. Catching the ball on the left block and going to work on Ebenezer Dowuona, drawing the foul on his jump hook going over his left shoulder. He made the and-1 free throw and tied the game at 64-64.

Then Purdue felt a tremor of deja vu as NC State responded with a Seabron lay-up to give the underdog the lead again with just 31 one seconds left.

The entire arena knew who was going to get the ball. This was Trevion Williams time. What no one could have been expecting was that Stefanovic would catch the ball on the run, attack the hoop, and make a finger roll at the front of the rim over two defenders. His lay up, just his second basket of the day, tied the game with 21 seconds to go.

Purdue’s defense tightened up and forced a tough shot, and grabbing the rebound. After Williams had the ball knocked out from behind, they had 2.1 seconds to in bound from just on the other side of half court. This is where the game got weird.

With no timeouts, Coach Painter tried to draw up a half court pass to 7’4” big man Zach Edey in the post. Williams sailed the pass and gave NC State the ball on their side of the floor. This was a monumental mistake that looked like it was going to give the Wolfpack another shot to win it. But as Jericole Hellems cut baseline to receive the in bounds pass, the whistle blew. The bounce pass bounced on the out of bounds line and NC State never got a shot to win the game.

It took forty minutes and overtime, but Purdue finally looked like the better team. They locked in on defense, spurred by some timely bench play from Ethan Morton who had the best game of his career. He had just 6 points, but his defense and timely head’s up play continuously bailed out a team that looked out of sync most the day. He had a team-high +24 plus/minus.

Stefanovic started over time by hitting another three, but it was an Eric Hunter Jr. steal just after an in bounds that led to the play of the game for Purdue.

The lackadaisical pass by NC State was picked off beautifully by an alert Hunter, who was having one of his worst games in his career before overtime. Hunter Jr. took the ball, found a streaking Ivey who went up with his left hand at the rim. The ball hit glass then spun around the front of the rim before Williams exploded up with two hands, punctuating the dunk and game with an exclamation that put Purdue up two possessions.


The Boilers finally got to breathe a sigh of relieve from there where Ivey iced it with a succession of free throw attempts.

After the Rutgers game, any win has to feel good for Coach Painter and his squad, but this Boiler team has some work to do. They struggled from three for the second straight game, going 5-21 and Zach Edey had another quiet game for the big man.

Purdue needs to find its identity after showing that #1 team in the country definitely isn’t it right now. They’ll get the whole week off for finals to think on it before playing Butler as part of the Crossroads Classic on Saturday.