The NKU men’s basketball team took the trip up to West Lafayette, Indiana to showdown in Mackey Arena against the 14th nationally-ranked Purdue Boilermakers on Friday night.
The atmosphere was electric, as Boilermaker fans filled the stands making the most noise they could to show off their home court advantage. The train horns, the student section raising their “Paint Crew” flag, the chants; no matter what it was, the electricity was all throughout Mackey.
Purdue started with the same electricity, as they came out of the gates hot shooting 6-9 from the field and 4-6 from three-point range on an 18-4 run within the first five minutes. A huge play on that early run was when the Boilermakers’ Will Berg got a huge offensive board and took it back up to show the height dominance Purdue looked to enforce.
The beginning of the game was especially cloudy for the Norse, as Keeyan Itejere picked up two fouls quickly, and his replacement Cesar Tchilombo picked up a foul within the first two minutes he entered the game.
After a three ball from NKU’s Josh Dilling helped stop the run, it was short lived, as the former Sycamore High School basketball star Raleigh Burgess threw down a huge dunk off the pick and roll to force an NKU timeout with the score 21-7 in favor of the Boilermakers.
The Norse came out of the timeout running, as a no-look pass from Dilling to Trey Robinson and a Dan Gherezgher three ball helped the ship sail. Tough defense from NKU forced Purdue into 0-5 shooting during this run and put the game at 21-16.
A Trey Kaufman-Renn layup would end the run, and a tough layup through contact would get the Boilermakers back on the tracks. Purdue would continue their dominance over the Norse, as a 16-8 run at the end of the half would set the score at 37-24.
The Boilermakers would finish this half shooting 50% from the field and 46% from beyond the arc. However, the Norse were able to invade passing lanes, as they racked up six first-half steals, including three from one of the best Horizon League defenders, Sam Vinson.
The Boilermakers proved to be chugging along the tracks too quickly for the Norse to keep up.
Itejere had a rough start to the second half, as a blocked dunk attempt and his fourth foul all dropped on him within the first three minutes of the half. However, he would have quite the recovery, as he threw down a monstrous slam at the 12:46 mark of the second half. Randy Pettus II would slide and glide his way to a steal and score to give the Norse some momentum.
Purdue brought their legal help, as Fletcher Loyer cashed in one of his two decibel-defying three pointers in the second half as part of his game-high 16 points.
Berg enforced his will in the second half, with some strong man slams including an and-one hammer to give the Boilermakers a 55-38 lead midway through the second half.
Purdue’s 34-18 paint-point domination and their 26-14 bench-point invasion was a huge piece of their 72-50 win over the Norse, as the Boilermakers shot 53% from the field and 41% from three as they splashed nine shots from the outside.
Despite the Norse being undersized, they put up a fight underneath, including tying Purdue in total rebounds with 33, and outrebounding them on the offensive glass 15-8.
Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter praised the way NKU was able to rebound.
“Where we struggled the most was keeping them off the glass,” Painter said. “They did a great job offensive rebounding and we didn’t do a good job of keeping off the glass and boxing out and going to the basketball,” Painter said.
NKU found a team effort on the offensive end as nine of the 10 players to play tonight for the Norse were able to score. Painter said despite the 22-point loss, NKU was an extremely tough match-up.
“That was a tough game for us,” Painter said. “I know we win by 22, but what’s the score if we play at their place or play at a neutral site?”
Slow starts in both halves was the storyline that defined this matchup for the Norse, but they hope to get their ship to safety on Nov. 14 when they will welcome Nicholls to Truist Arena for NKU’s first men’s basketball home game of the season at 7 p.m. This game will also be streaming on ESPN+.