Victory slips away from Purdue at the end again in loss at Illinois

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Another Big Ten road game, another golden opportunity lost for Purdue, which fell 88-80 at Illinois Friday night, probably costing it a double bye to the Big Ten Tournament.

It was a true game of runs as Purdue separated itself more than once, only for Illinois — behind 22 points from freshman Will Riley — to respond. Illinois closed the first half on a 7-0 run, then went for nine straight in the final minutes.

Purdue led by 10 with 11:34 left only to see Illinois rip off a 17-3 run.

PDF: Purdue-Illinois statistics

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This has been a familiar storyline for the Boilermakers, who saw robust leads — albeit some too early in games to really matter all that much — go by the wayside. It happened against Wisconsin and Indiana, but this one was more like the maddening loss at Michigan, as Illinois’ streaky three-point shooting came alive at the right time and the Boilermakers, well behind in the count, couldn’t keep the opponent off the line at the end. It created a situation where Purdue couldn’t afford to miss any shots, as defensive problems again undid Purdue.

Eighty-eight points.

“Us,” Braden Smith said of what needs to be better to bar opponents from chopping leads right back down. “We need to be better defensively.

“It just comes down to getting those stops.”

Those were hard to come by. An erratic shooting team that just keeps shooting, Illinois shook off prolonged stretches of successive misses to make two big ones in the final two minutes.

Again handcuffed by a disparity in fouls, Purdue couldn’t keep Illinois off the foul line at the end while never reaching the bonus itself. The Boilermakers were called for eight more fouls and attempted barely half as many free throws. Purdue was a team-best +14 with Camden Heide in the game at forward, but he fouled on a bizarre and-one call at the rim with under three minutes to play, after Purdue was up five.

This, too, has been a consistent problem for Purdue, which rarely gets in the bonus but can’t keep opponents out of the bonus.

No one wants to litigate this call or that call, but it is really an issue for a Purdue that does have real deficiencies that lead to fouls, but also real strengths that seem like they should be drawing more calls.

“We just have to be better,” said Coach Matt Painter, whose teams have been one of the best teams in the Big Ten for several years at not fouling. “We have to control what we can control and be better.

“It’s just interesting that only gets us on the road.”

Trey Kaufman-Renn made his final push to lead the Big Ten in scoring by putting up 29 points. Smith scored 18, with 12 assists and nine rebounds, falling just one shy of a triple-double. Fletcher Loyer scored 14 points.

As Illinois endured a run of 10 consecutive missed threes after a 3-for-3 start and as Kaufman-Renn worked over Illinois’ bigs on offense, Purdue led by nine on two occasions in the final 4:33 of the first half.

But freshman Will Riley made four free throws, then a buzzer-beating step-back three, as part of a seven-point burst by the Illini prior to halftime.

Purdue closes the regular season having lost five of seven and unless Northwestern can shock Maryland, will play Thursday at the Big Ten Tournament as the 5 seed.