Zach Edey, second-half surge lift No. 1 seed Purdue past Grambling State
INDIANAPOLIS – It was just a matter of time before Purdue found its mojo.
Granted, the first half of Friday night’s NCAA first-round tournament matchup against Grambling State had its share of uncomfortable moments for the Boilermakers and their fans.
Sloppy plays. Missed free throws. The lack of defensive resistance allowed the Tigers to find a rhythm offensively from the mid-range game.
Although the Midwest Region’s No. 1 seed led by nine at halftime, the Boilermakers imposed their will with a series of plays in the first eight minutes of the second half.
In the end, though, Grambling State didn’t have an answer for Zach Edey, who dominated inside as Purdue rolled to a 78-50 victory at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Edey finished with 30 points, 21 rebounds and three blocked shots.
The Boilermakers, who won their 30th game of the season tying a program record, will face No. 8 seed Utah State in Sunday’s second round.
Three second-half plays provided the spark to create enough separation to prevent another 16-seed surprise:
• After Grambling State scored the first basket after halftime, the Boilermakers scored three straight points, but it was Lance Jones’ transition 3-pointer that jumpstarted the second-half surge.
• Trey Kaufman-Renn, who hit the boards hard and allowed Purdue to dominate the rebounding by a wide margin, took a pass from Braden Smith outside of the lane. Kaufman-Renn used a nifty spin move, ran around the defender and slammed home a one-handed dunk.
• And Smith struck again, this time in transition. Camden Heide was running toward the basket and lofted the perfect lob pass to the redshirt freshman, who had a thunderous dunk, igniting the sellout crowd one more time.
By this point, the Boilermakers were up 21 with 12:29 to play and were headed to the second round.
“That’s the things you like to see,” sophomore Fletcher Loyer said. “You like to see the crowd get into it and the bench guys get into it and just the energy you feed off of to make a run like that.”
Smith produced a double-double – 11 points, 10 assists and five rebounds. Kaufman-Renn finished with 11 points and seven rebounds.
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“YEAH, HE’S A BIG DUDE”
Purdue’s big man lived up to the hype in the mind of the Tigers.
From Friday’s postgame press conference: Have you ever seen anybody like Zach Edey?
“I don’t think nobody has seen anything like Zach Edey,” junior guard Kintavious Dozier said. “That’s kind of unreal. What they say he is on paper, he’s exactly that.”
Said Tra’Michael Moton: “Yeah, he’s a big dude. It was kind of hard trying to get shots up on him.”
Based on how Grambling State played defense this season, it didn’t double the post. The Tigers left their bigs in one-on-one situations in trying to deal with Edey. They were physical with Edey and didn’t back away from signaling their plan from the start.
“Honestly, it feels like another Tuesday night in the Big Ten,” Smith said. “They were super physical, and that was all they could really do to try to stop him. Zach is Zach, and you’re not going to stop him.”
Edey finished 11 of 17 from the field with seven dunks.
“Some teams – and you would have to ask Zach – but some teams we play, Northwestern was really physical, but you don’t always see it,” Kaufman-Renn said. “Some teams are better at hiding it. They weren’t the best at hiding their physicality.”
The strategy was working at a certain level since Edey made just 4 of 10 from the line in the first half. Edey and the Boilermakers left a handful of points off the scoreboard in the first 20 minutes but settled in after halftime.
Edey finished 8 of 14 at the line after drawing 11 fouls.
“Northwestern is pretty physical, but I think that’s Zach being so dominant and them not being able to move him,” Loyer said. “They didn’t know what to do.
“When watching film and seeing them not double post players, we didn’t know what to expect. It shows credibility to Zach, and then you don’t know how they’re going to guard you and to still dominate is impressive.”
Edey’s numbers put him in elite company. He’s the first player to post a 30-20 game in the NCAA tournament game since 1995. It’s quite an accomplishment on this type of stage.
“You say it’s like a big stage, but it’s just basketball at the end of the day,” Edey said. “I came out and tried to set the tone, tried to play as hard as I can, trying to send a message to the team – ‘We’re here, we’re ready, we’re good’ and send a message to the country – ‘We’re good.’ ”
LOCKING DOWN DEFENSIVELY
The main reason the Boilermakers got going was their defense.
Throughout the first half, the Tigers got the shots they wanted, when they wanted, especially Dozier. The junior carried GSU in the first half, scoring 12 points but needing 13 shots. Most of his success was getting to the rim or from the midrange area.
Dozier kept Grambling State in the game, but Purdue picked up the defensive intensity after halftime and the offense came to a standstill.
“After halftime, we need to lock in a little bit better defensively,” Smith said. “I feel like in the first half, they got away from us. They’re good players, and they make tough shots, too. Once we dug down deep and tried to get those stops, it really benefited us in the end.”
The Tigers made just 8 of 29 field goals in the second half after shooting 46.2% in the first 20 minutes.
“It clicked at halftime when we decided that we were going to go out and guard our butts off and not let them score,” Loyer said. “We’re going to hold them to 20-some points.”
Not only was the perimeter defense better, but Edey defended the rim at a high level. The Tigers didn’t enjoy the success they had in the paint during Wednesday’s First Four victory over Montana State.
They scored just 18 points in the lane because Edey was there to challenge nearly every shot.
“We did some good things, stayed under the ball better,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “Zach got some blocks and dominated the glass. He had 21 rebounds and they had 23. (That’s) a pretty big stat line for him.”
