Rutgers leans on mental, physical toughness to take down top-ranked Purdue basketball

WEST LAFAYETTE – For the second straight year, Rutgers has ended Purdue’s run as the nation’s No. 1 team.

Leaning on their mental and physical toughness, the Scarlet Knights knocked off the top-ranked Boilermakers 65-64 on Monday night at Mackey Arena. The loss ends Purdue’s 13-game winning streak to start the season.

Last year, Rutgers beat the Boilermakers on a last-second shot the same week they vaulted to No. 1 in the country for the first time in program history.

Facing their largest deficit of the season, the Boilermakers stormed back from a 13-point hole to take a pair of leads (55-54 on Brandon Newman‘s 3-pointer) and 64-62 on Fletcher Loyer‘s 3-pointer with 29.5 seconds to play.

But the unranked Scarlet Knights regouped behind Paul Mulcahy‘s play down the stretch and Cam Spencer’s 3-pointer with 13.3 seconds to play. Newman had a final look but his 3-pointer from the top of the key bounced off the front of the rim.

Zach Edey posted his 11th double double with 19 points and 11 rebounds and Newman added 11 points, including three 3-pointers.

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TOUGHER TEAM

Purdue wasn’t the toughest team on the court Monday. Rutgers was.

“At the end of the day, I just thought Rutgers was mentally and physically tougher than we were, even if we had won the game,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said.

Mulcahy led the toughness charge by scoring seven straight points in final four minutes. His missed shots turned into offensive rebounds and led to the Scarlet Knights building a five-point lead with 2:21 to play.

Even though the Boilermakers came back to forge ahead on Loyer’s 3-pointer, the Scarlet Knights were not going to be denied. Mulcahy was a force on both ends, finishing with six assists, four steals, eight rebounds and no turnovers in 37 minutes.

“We kept letting him have the ball back and we kept letting him have second cracks at it,” Newman said of Mulcahy, who scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half. “We were able to make him miss a couple of times, but he ended up getting the ball back and putting it in.”

Mulcahy set up the game-winning basket for Spencer, who scored eight of his 14 points after halftime. It was a big moment for Spencer, who played last season at Loyola University Maryland before transferring.

During the recruiting process, the players and coaches talked about last year’s win over then-No. 1 Purdue. Both games were decided by one point.

“I looked up all the college basketball scores and saw that Rutgers beat Purdue and watched the highlights and it was one of the better games I’ve ever seen,” Spencer said. “To be able to do it again is pretty cool.”

LESSONS LEARNED

The Boilermakers weren’t going to win every game, but Monday’s loss showcases plenty of areas that need work.

The shooting woes are well-documented, but the unforced turnovers and all-around sloppy play put Purdue in a double-digit hole and made it harder to come all the way back.

Overall, the Boilermakers weren’t sharp with their execution. The passing was out of control with the ball ending up out of bounds or in the hands of Painter. Purdue didn’t handle the fullcourt pressure as the guards put their teammates in poor position to break the press and it became a scramble to recover and find good shots.

“Put the ball on the money; make good passes,” Painter said. “Empty possessions because we’re not making clean passes.”

The end goal is for the Boilermakers to develop into a mentally and physically tougher team the rest of the Big Ten season. There’s time since Monday was the third Big Ten game but two road matchups await Thursday at Ohio State and Sunday against Penn State in Philadelphia to see how Purdue will respond.

“They were ready to go,” Painter said about Rutgers. “I thought they were sharper than we were and it’s as much on our players as it is on me. You’ve got to have your guys ready. You can’t jump over the fight; you have to go out and do your job.”

Purdue also didn’t secure as many loose balls as it had in other games as the Scarlet Knights were quicker and more determined to keep possessions or steal ones from the Boilermakers.

“And what Rutgers did didn’t shock the coaching staff,” Painter said. “We sold it and sold it and so on and like ‘Hey man, these guys are coming.’ And if we’re going to war, we would stop by New Jersey and pick them up. Them cats, they play for keeps and we explained that to them.

“Right now, we have to play for keeps. You get in that pickup game and if you lose you have to wait an hour before you get back. We don’t want to wait. We’ve got to get grimy and we’re not very grimy right now.”

DOWN THE STRETCH

After Spencer’s 3-pointer gave the Scarlet Knights the one-point lead, Newman had a good look. The ball went inside to Edey twice, but he passed out to the perimeter and the ball landed in Newman’s hands with three seconds on the clock.

The shot looked good leaving Newman’s hands.

“For sure, 100% felt good,” Newman said.

Said Edey: “We got the shot we wanted; it just didn’t go in. I felt like we had really good ball movement. I’ll live with that shot every single time at the end of the game. It didn’t go in this time.”

On the possession Loyer drained a 3-pointer, giving the Boilermakers a 64-62 lead, it was the same process. Good ball movement led to the freshman setting his feet and hitting the go-ahead basket.

“We did what we were supposed to do,” said Loyer, who finished with 10 points. “We threw it into Zach, he was doubled, we kicked it out and made one more pass and the shot went in.

“Things happen when you make the right play. Same thing happened on the last play; the shot just happened not to fall. It’s the shot we wanted and the shot we’re going to continue to do.”

Up until the final minutes, decent looks from the perimeter were hard to find for Purdue against the Scarlet Knights tough defense. The Boilermakers were better in the second half, hitting 5 of 12 from beyond the arc after making just 2 of 11 in the first half.

But Purdue was just 12 of 25 from two-point range, well below its season percentage. The unforced turnovers also were a factor, giving Rutgers plenty of chances to extend the lead.

“They’re a tough team, they fight, and they make it tough for you to throw it inside and make it tough for you to catch the ball but it’s not impossible,” Painter said. “We had to show resolve.”