Third-ranked Purdue cruises past Grace College in exhibition action

The only drama remaining in Wednesday night’s exhibition came early in the second half when Zach Edey stepped into a 3-point shot attempt from the top of the key,

Edey’s release looked good, the anticipation of the crowd grew, ready to reach a crescendo, but the ball bounced off the rim. Is this going to be Edey’s only 3-point attempt this season?

Who knows.

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PDF: Purdue-Grace stats

Third-ranked Purdue didn’t need Edey’s 3-pointer against Grace College as the Boilermakers rolled to a 98-51 victory at Mackey Arena. Wednesday was the final tune-up before Monday’s regular season opener against Samford.

What coach Matt Painter’s team learned about itself is difficult to gauge, other than main core of 12 players saw extended minutes and the Boilermakers used a plethora of different combinations.

But it was the starters – Edey, Trey Kaufman-Renn, Lance Jones, Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith – that stretched the lead going into halftime, outscoring the Lancers 24-11 the last seven minutes to lead by 22.

However, transition defense early on was a problem as Grace, ranked No. 2 in the Preseason NAIA poll, exploited Purdue’s inability to sprint back. The Lancers also took advantage of the Boilermakers overplaying on the wing and scored on backdoor cuts along the baseline.

Edey totaled 19 points and nine rebounds and Jones – a transfer from Southern Illinois – drained three 3-pointers and scored 13. Braden Smith collected 11 points, six assists and five rebounds.

“COOL FEELING”

As the players were walking to the postgame press conference, a friendly wager was made between Smith and Edey.

“The first question was going to be the 3-pointer,” Edey said.

And it was.

The 7-foot-4 Edey called it a “cool feeling” to launch a 3-pointer in a game and truly enjoyed the opportunity.

P.J. Thompson, the program’s director of player personnel, told Edey he might have a chance if the Boilermakers secured a comfortable lead before halftime. Edey shoots 3-pointers in practice and drains consecutive baskets from beyond the arc during summer drills.

“I literally never shot one in high school in a game,” Edey said. “P.J. told me if we have a good first half, in the second half we’ll have a little play for you. We did one in the second half. I made sure I reminded him at halftime.”

At the 16:38 mark, Edey let it fly.

MACKEY ARENA DEBUT

Wednesday was Jones’ first home game, and the environment left a strong impression.  

“It was unreal,” said Jones, who was 3 of 6 from 3-point range. “For it to be an exhibition game and for the atmosphere to be like this, I can’t describe it. I soaked in every moment and enjoyed every moment of it.”

The transition from the Missouri Valley Conference to one of the top five teams in the nation has been smooth for Jones, who gives the Boilermakers additional quickness and another perimeter scoring threat.

“It’s been more natural than I thought,” Jones said. “Being a new kid on the block, you always have your second thoughts. You get in your head a lot but being around these guys every day and having them believe in me and me believing in them is helping me along the way.”

Painter said the staff ran one play for Jones on Wednesday but most of his offense will likely develop based on the actions around him.

“You can run a few things for him,” Painter said. “He’s going to get those shots organically because they double Zach or pay attention to Braden on ball screens or whatever we’re running. We didn’t run a whole lot for him. He had some pretty good looks out there.”

FEW STRUGGLES ON DEFENSE

The Lancers took advantage of their own speed and athletic ability to cause the Boilermakers problems on the defensive end.

The lack of transition defense was noticeable, and the backdoor cuts were an issue for Painter.

“Their quickness gave us issues as you saw, like the backdoor cuts and obviously they haven’t played a lot of games, they only played a couple of games so far,” said Painter, who didn’t put together a complete scouting report for Wednesday’s game.

“It’s still something where our guys were like, ‘Hey, man, they’re going to dribble at you and backdoor. They’re going to jump stop, pivot, reverse pivot, lose vision, gain vision and backdoor you again.’ Let’s don’t do this and they still kept doing it.”