Fletcher Loyer ushers #2 Purdue through slugfest win over #7 Tennessee, into Maui Invitational final
HONOLULU — Purdue’s Fletcher Loyer had no idea where the bright red scratches on his left arm came from, as the Boilermaker guard looked like he’d been attacked by some sort of wild cat. Instead, he’d spent his afternoon battling back Volunteers, scoring 27 in his team’s exhausting 71-67 win over seventh-ranked Tennessee, a contest for which those scratches told you the story.
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It was a two-and-a-half-hour ordeal, this Maui Invitational semifinal, “highlighted” by 51 fouls, 78 free throws, 28 missed free throws, one 20-percent shooting half by one team, a 30-percent shooting half from the other, one tech, one flagrant and foul trouble for pretty much everyone who isn’t a guard and one incredible second-half, fitting of this unintended series between these two programs.
Loyer scored a career-best 27 points, ushering Purdue through a game in which it really struggled at the foul line, especially early, and dealt with foul trouble for Zach Edey, though it didn’t stop him from getting his usual ho-hum 23 and 10.
One day after beating No. 11 Gonzaga by pushing tempo, Purdue won today Big Ten — maybe UFC — style, “one of those grinder-type games,” as Matt Painter called it.
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“We’re a super versatile team,” Edey said. “We can run offense a lot of different ways. We can get in transition, we can run half court, we have really good sets, we can rebound the ball. We have a lot of stuff to our team which makes it harder to game plan.”
The Boilermakers will play for the Maui Invitational championship on Wednesday at 5 p.m. EST (Noon Hawaii time) against No. 4 Marquette handled No. 1 Kansas 73-59. Had Kansas defeated Marquette, it could set up the first No. 1 versus No. 2 matchup in Purdue basketball annals.
