WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – As soon as the ball when into the air and the Boilers and Cavaliers got underway, the intensity level of Purdue was at another level. Sasha Stefanovic was the leader of the pack in the 69-40 win for the Boilermakers with 20 points on the night, 18 of hose came off of threes.
Here’s how it all went down at Mackey Arena, as the Boilers won the Elite Eight rematch.
UVA won the tip and went right to work as Jay Huff drained one from deep. Purdue’s Sasha Stefanovic answered the call, with back to back to back triples of his own to put Purdue on top 9-5.
“It was awesome! It just sent the tone for us. By the third one, Mackey just erupted!”, said Matt Haarms of Stefanovic’s fast start impacting the crowd from the start. “It’s tough to overcome that if you’re the opposing team and you hear that kind of noise after a three.”
This was the start of an 11-2 run from the Boilers as they held the 11-5 lead as we reached the under 16-minute timeout. To this point, Purdue hadn’t turned the ball over. However, out of the timeout, they did just that, and UVA capitalized with a basket to make it 11-7.
Then it was back to business for Purdue as Aaron Wheeler got in on the action with a wide-open look from three to push their lead to 7. As we reached the under 12-minute timeout, Purdue led 14-9 over UVA. Jahaad Procter then put on a show with seven straight points, including a triple to make it 21-9 Purdue with 8:03 left in the half.
Matt Haarms would get his first bucket of the game with 6:42 left in the half, as the lead pushed to 14 for Purdue. The lead grew to 26-9 before UVA got back on the board with a layup from Mamadi Diakite. Then, on the ensuing inbound, Francisco Caffaro picked up his 2nd foul, making him the third UVA player with two fouls to this point in the game with 3:26 left in the half, and Purdue leading 26-11.
As the first half winded down, Virginia looked to take advantage of a three-minute drought by the Boilers from the field. The Cavs were able to trim the deficit down to 12, multiple times. However, call it desire, call it who wants it more, whatever you want. But Purdue continued to press the issue and took a 32-17 lead into the locker room at the half.
Purdue forced 9 first-half turnovers for UVA, while only turning it over five times. Procter led the team in scoring with 11. Virginia spent the entirety of the first half trying to rally, with little to no success in doing so.
“We did get some open threes, but they weren’t going in. But they (Purdue) just took whatever they wanted away from us, and then they went out and got whatever they wanted offensively,” explained UVA head coach Tony Bennett.
After an opening 2nd half bucket from UVA cut the deficit to 13, Stefanovic would again get the party started for Purdue draining a triple on their second possession. The lead grew past 20 for the first time of the night as Eric Hunter Jr. drained a triple to make it 40-19 with 16:17 left to play.
The Cavaliers rallied back with five straight points from Huff, three coming from the line. This cut the deficit to 16 with 13:35 left to play. Trevion Williams got his first basket of the game with 12:33 left to play on a layup. Then a triple from Casey Morsell cut it to 15. However, a Haarms triple pushed it right back to 18 for Purdue.
As we reached the under 12-minute media timeout with 10:11 left to play, it was Purdue’s ball game to lose, leading 48-32. The Boilers would push the lead back over 20 with 4:37 left to play as Hunter Jr. drained two shots from the line to make it 57-36.
The onslaught continued down the stretch as the Boiler extended what would end up being a 16-0 run, taking a 31 point lead with 1:06 left to play. As the final buzzer sounded, it was a resounding win for the Boilers with a final of 69-40.
Purdue will open up Big Ten play on Sunday, December 8th, when they welcome Northwestern into Mackey Arena.
Written by Adrian Beecher
