SAN JOSE, CA — As the final 3-pointer of Fletcher Loyer’s Purdue basketball career completed its arc, Arizona’s Ivan Kharchenkov was already mugging with the crowd in celebration.
Those final seconds epitomized how completely the Wildcats owned the second half of their 74-69 Elite Eight victory at the SAP Center. Both teams then set travel plans for Indiana. The Boilermakers immediately headed home, while Arizona set a Final Four date at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday.
Purdue came within one half of completing a late-season resurgence to another Final Four. It won seven straight games, determined to prove it belonged with the same teams who dominated the same regular season which proved so frustrating for the Boilermakers.
Arizona looked like one of those force-of-nature teams all season. Its looked like on Saturday night, too, responding to Purdue’s 38-31 halftime lead by putting on a clinic of attacking and defending the paint and walling off any chance of a comeback with a pile of free throws.
The Wildcats met that championship standard from Day 1, so their championship chase continues. Purdue, despite the resolve displayed in winning the Big Ten Tournament championship and reaching a second Elite Eight in three years for the first time in program history, never reclaimed that status.
There’s no shame in that, especially not for a team and group of leaders who had accomplished so much. But in a somber locker room Saturday night, there was plenty of disappointment – not merely for the final score, but for the finality of their experience together.
“It’s just crazy, man,” sophomore guard Gicarri Harris said. “I love this team. This is my favorite, best team I’ve ever played on. This team means the world to me. It just hurts we couldn’t get that win, but I’m so proud of everybody in this group.
“It just hurts. I wish we could go out there one more time.”
Purdue went into halftime in position to knock off Arizona
Rewind to about one hour before that scene. In the same locker room, an invigorated team plotted how it would go back out after halftime and replicate one of its best stretches of play this season.
It grew from the most unlikely beginning.
Trey Kaufman-Renn was called for an offensive foul – his second foul – with 12:54 left in the first half. Matt Painter sent in backup Jack Benter. Arizona went right down and scored on a Toba Awaka hook shot for a 19-12 lead.
So Painter went to something he’d used a total of four times all season. As in, for four possessions. He sent 7-foot-4 Daniel Jacobsen in to play next to 6-11 Cluff.
Asked if he’d ever practiced with that lineup, Painter said, “No sir.”
Not even yesterday, in preparation for this matchup?
“No sir.”
At the time, though, with Arizona on a constant downhill attack, Painter saw no other option.
“Real quick right there when that happened, from a size standpoint, it had to happen,” Painter said. “It had to happen.”
That lineup, with interior defensive and rebounding upside, came with any number of limitations offensively. Right around that juncture, Purdue’s offense was stagnating – five consecutive missed field goals and four turnovers in under four minutes.
The unlikely spark came with a lineup of Loyer, Omer Mayer, Gicarri Harris, Jacobsen and Cluff – five players usually only the floor together for the national anthem and shootaround.
Harris hit a 3 on a kick-out from Cluff to break that scoring drought. Mayer hit one of his mid-rangers. Cluff scored on a put-back, then created a turnover which led to another 3 by Harris.
While holding Arizona without a field goal for nearly six minutes, Purdue pieced together a 12-2 run. Then, with its conventional starting lineup back on the floor, it closed the half with another string of stops and shot-making. The Wildcats could not get to the paint as often, and when they did, they weren’t converting. They started settling for jump shots – the exact antithesis of their offensive model.
For the final 10 minutes of the first half, Purdue looked like the monster – deep and skilled and unwilling to be pushed around inside.
Arizona avalanche buried Purdue basketball in second half
The Boilermakers went into this NCAA Tournament no longer only theorizing about their ability to slay one of these monsters.
They did it to Michigan – the 19-1 conqueror of the Big Ten. Battled to a halftime tie, then opened the second half with authority to take control. A similar opening salvo Saturday might have knocked Arizona back on its heels and forced it to become even more perimeter-oriented.
Instead, Kaufman-Renn drove the lane on Purdue’s first possession, stumbled while missing his shot, then committed his third foul trying for the rebound. Only 39 seconds into the half, he sat down and Jacobsen returned.
This time, Arizona put its complete talents on display.
Koa Peat, voted the West Region’s most outstanding player, started making jumpers over the Boiler big men. Where the Wildcats had been turned away on drives in the first half, they now drew contact en route to the rim. Arizona attempted 20 free throws in total and made 18 – pushing a potential comeback farther and farther out of reach.
Purdue’s own jump shooting went on ice. Smith, who had snapped out of his postseason 3-point funk in the first half, didn’t make a field goal in the second. The team made 1 of 8 behind the arc over the final 20 minutes. Even with Cluff and Kaufman-Renn battling for baskets in the paint, the offense’s other limb had been lopped off.
Arizona grabbed control with a 16-3 run. When it led 59-53 with 7:49 to play, Purdue had scored only 13 second-half points and was being outscored 25-14 combined in second-chance points and points off turnovers.
Then an offensive rebound set Brayden Burries up for a 3-pointer, and a turnover led to a Kharchenkov’s fast-break layup.
As that Arizona avalanche rolled downhill, Purdue was reminded of the lasting effects of their regular-season swoon. At many neutral sites, Boilermaker fans drown out opposing sections in number and volume.
Saturday night in SAP Center, the Pacific Time Zone favored the Wildcats.
“U OF A!” “U OF A”
“A-ri-zo-na” (clap clap clapclapclap)
Throughout the second half of the regular season, as Purdue scuffled against the Big Ten’s best at Mackey Arena, it could not find enough defensive acumen to pair with its historically efficient offense. It saw other teams doing that, and pursuit of that standard defined this seven-game postseason win streak.
Arizona had been that team since Day 1 – something it affirmed with authority in that second half.
“I feel like they’re one of the most – if not the most – skilled team we’ve played all year,” C.J. Cox said.
Purdue unsatisfied with season, proud of legacy
Purdue never pushed back on national championship expectations. It welcomed them – spoke openly of its own belief it could contend for that trophy.
This core senior group had accomplished everything else. With the addition of Cluff and return of a healthy Jacobsen fixing last season’s rebounding and rim protection deficiencies, this team could legitimately argue in November it had as complete a roster as anyone.
When it came time to make that case on the floor, though, the Boilermakers did not match those few teams who separated themselves into a special tier. Michigan, Duke and, yes, Arizona, dominated offensively and defensively. Purdue lost seven of its last 13 regular-season games. Those three monsters? They lost six regular season games combined.
This senior class had already established a legacy unrivaled in program history. Multiple Big Ten championships, three Sweet 16s, a couple of Elite Eights and one generational run to the national championship game.
Saturday night was as far as that ride was destined to go, but what a ride it was.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue basketball looked destined to fulfill dream before Arizona woke up. ‘It just hurts’
Reporting by Nathan Baird, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
