Michigan State 76 Purdue 74

Michigan State 76 Purdue 74

Michigan State scores huge road victory at Mackey Arena

In a tightly-constested game, Purdue had two opportunities in the closing seconds to tie or take the lead, but fell short in both attempts. Trey Kaufmann-Renn missed a short jump-hook shot that would have tied the game with 8 seconds left. Purdue had one more chance with an out-of-bounds play with 3.4 seconds, but Braden Smith’s game-winning long 3-point shot was slightly off the mark at the buzzer.

Purdue jumped out to a quick 13-6 lead but Michigan State stormed back with a 10-0 run and the game remained a back-and-forth battle the rest of the way. Purdue led 39-36 at half, but Michigan State came back to lead most of the second half. In all there were 12 lead changes in the game and 7 ties.

Braden Smith had a huge milestone of becoming only the 5th player in NCAA division 1 history to record 1000 career assists.

Michigan State’s shooting in the 2nd half was key as they went 15 for 26 and made the key shots down the stretch. Purdue went 13 for 29 in the 2nd half and missed the final critical shots.

Key Stats

Michigan won the battle inside, scoring 40 points in the paint.

Michigan State capitalized by scoring 19 points off of 9 turnovers while Purdue’s points off turnovers was only 5.

Purdue shot well from 3, making 12 of 25 from the arc.

Key Individual Performances

Purdue’s Braden Smith had another double-double with 12 points and 10 assists.

Michigan State center Carson Cooper 15 points and 6 rebounds.

Michigan State guard Kur Teng scored 13 points including 3 three-pointers.

What it means

Michigan State with a huge Quad 1-a road win made a strong case to move up to the 3-seed line.

Purdue, who was the last 2-seed at last weekend’s NCAA Reveal, now risks moving down to the 3-seed line depending on how Florida does this weekend.

Michigan State and Purdue swap places in the current Big-Ten standings. Purdue moves to 5th place in the conference and moves out of the coveted triple-bye position in the Big Ten Tournament.

Quotes

Michigan State head coach, Tom Izzo, “The class Purdue showed at the end, even the fans, was something else.”

Purdue head coach Matt Painter, “19 points on 9 turnovers was the key. Those are off-the-chart numbers.”