Game Wrapping | #2 Alabama 78, #13 Purdue 87 | Protecting Mackey

Purdue is just one game away from 40 straight regular-season non-conference wins after besting Alabama, 87-78

Midway through the second half, it looked like Alabama was going to avenge its loss last year to Purdue in Toronto. Instead, a true freshman guard had his first moment in Mackey Arena.

After Alabama took its biggest lead of the game, 65-59, near the midway point of the second half, Trey Kaufman-Renn took a pass from Braden Smith and knocked down a floater. The next play, Kaufman-Ren returned the favor, finding Smith to cut to the hoop and the layup cut the game to two.

Cue CJ Cox.

Coming off the bench, the freshman dribbled left around a Trey Kaufman-Renn screen. With his defender on him, Cox quickly pulled up and knocked down the three-pointer and whistled. On the ensuing possession, it looked like Mark Sears would answer with a finish at the rim, but Myles Colvin got his hand on the ball and blocked it off the glass.

CJ Cox would knock down his second three, almost identical to the first from the other wing. Then he would knock down a third, giving Purdue a 72-65 lead with 8:17 to play and forcing Alabama coach Nate Oats to call a timeout.

The true freshmen would cap off a 13-0 Purdue run that took just over 2 minutes of playing time.

Alabama wasn’t going to go away. As it had most of the day, it dominated the offensive glass. An offensive rebound led to a Latrell Wrightsell Jr. 3 to cut the game to 72-68. Then Trey Kaufman-Renn went to work and scored inside. Alabama would answer with another offensive rebound and three for Whitesell, but it wasn’t enough to counter Kaufman-Renn’s dominance. Kaufman-Renn would get two more hook shots to go on her way to 26 points to lead all scorers.

A Braden Smith steal on Mark Sears would seal the game for Purdue with about two minutes to play and a three-possession lead.

Purdue did a good job all night on Alabama’s star. Sears had just 15 points on 5-of-15 shooting. As promised, the job of guarding Sears was spread between several Purdue defenders, including Gicarri Harris, Myles Colvin and CJ Cox.

Braden Smith won this battle between the nation’s top two point guards with an all-around game that featured a lot of mid-range pull-ups and even more drop-offs inside to his big man. Smith had 17 points, 5 rebounds and 10 assists.

Matt Painter will be most pleased with Smith about the way he protected the ball. Smith had just one turnover on the game and Purdue as a team had just 3 turnovers.

Fletcher Loyer capped off another half with a buzzer beater, knocking down a three to give Purdue the lead heading into the half. Loyer finished with 17 points on 9 shot attempts.