Zach Edey carries Purdue through shooting dry spell in win over Austin Peay

PDF: Purdue-Austin Peay statistics

Thanks to Zach Edey‘s dominance, Purdue weathered an 0-for-16 three-point-shooting start en route to a 63-44 smash-and-grab win over Austin Peay in Mackey Arena Friday night. The Boilermakers improved to 2-0.

Coming off a strange 4-of-13 game in the opener vs. Milwaukee, Edey erupted for 30 points on 12-of-13 shooting against the Governors.

It wasn’t until the 7:40 mark of the second half that Purdue made a three, coming from David Jenkins Jr, of all people, after Purdue had missed 16 straight. Jenkins missed the opener with a gruesome black eye and only returned to shooting around on Thursday.

Purdue finished 2-of-18 from three.

Beside Edey, no other Boilermaker scored more than five points.

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ZACH EDEY DOMINATED

Asked the other day about his uncharacteristic inefficiency against Milwaukee the other day, Zach Edey seemed to essentially shrug a shoulder, unfazed by that 4-of-13 outing.

Against Austin Peay, an entirely different deal.

Purdue went to Edey to open the game as it always does and the center was the foundation of a solid offensive start for the home team.

He never let up.

“I just tried to value every shot I took,” Edey said. “Last game maybe I rushed some of my shots, took some off-balance shots. Tonight, I tried to keep that strong base, when I was shooting, not get rushed and take my shots.”

Notably, Edey played a career-high 31 minutes and drew nine fouls while missing just one of his baker’s-dozen shots and totaling 11 rebounds, bringing his two-game mark to 28.

Edey carried the Boilermakers threw that run of 16 consecutive missed threes, many of them of the higher-percentage variety.

“We really could have pushed it out,” Coach Matt Painter said, “if we could have made some of those open shots.”

Austin Peay has real limitations offensively, but Purdue holding the Govs to just 28-percent shooting still counts.

“We were talking in the locker room about how last year this is a game where we would really have struggled, when we couldn’t just outscore somebody, when our shots weren’t going down,” Edey said. “This team, we can play defense well and don’t have to just outscore people.”

Painter was enthused about his team’s defense Friday night. One must understand that Purdue’s coach is rarely one to ever make any sort of suggestion that his team is playing to his high standard from a defensive perspective.

“You’re going to have some breakdowns, but right now, I’d have thought our defense would be behind our offense,” Painter said. “And it really is, but our defense has been pretty good here the past couple days. … Our guys have been on it the past couple games.”

DAVID JENKINS DEBUTS

After a week spent living with an unsightly black eye, missing practice, undergoing uncommon medical procedures and enduring stupid dad-joke tweets about his eye, David Jenkins Jr. made his Purdue debut a memorable one.

Of all the people to break Purdue’s run of futility from three-point range, it was the Boilermakers’ puffy-eyed newcomer, almost a week after Mason Gillis‘ head laid waste to his right eye. He only returned to shoot-around on game day prior to Austin Peay after having his eye area drained on Thursday.

“Luckily I was able to play after my eye opened a little bit,” Jenkins said, a day after seeing a local plastic surgeon. “Hopefully it heals a little easier now.”

With 7:40 left to play, it was Jenkins who connected from the corner off a deft inside-out pass from Gillis, inciting a catharsis-heavy cheer from Mackey Arena’s sell-out crowd.

This was a guy who didn’t practice for a week and spent much of that time with one of his eyes essentially trapped shut. If nothing else, Jenkins showed a measure of toughness and competitiveness just being out there at all.

“I thought he played hard and did some really good things,” Painter said. “You sit out for a week you’d be amazed how you lose your wind and your conditioning suffers.”