Size and shooting was the story behind a Wednesday night loss at the hands of No. 4 Purdue. In front of a crowded student section, a 7-foot-4 sophomore from Toronto, Ontario gave Minnesota problems in all aspects of the game. The Gophers fought back numerous times, but Purdue came out on top 88-73.
“We’re just continuing to build. Even in wins, [we’re] still finding ways to build to keep it going in the right direction,” head coach Ben Johnson said. “That’s our challenge the rest of the year, to win and to build and to grow each and every day.”
Minnesota continues to show resilience game after game. Even when the odds are against them, and they find themselves down double digits, they continue to fight. Wednesday night, Purdue was just the better overall team.
Zach Edey was dominant on both sides of the ball. He got senior Charlie Daniels out of the game with three fouls before the first five minutes of the game, led the game in rebounds with 12 and forced double and triple teams while in the paint that led to open three-pointers all night.
“[Edey] got both Eric [Curry] and Charlie [Daniels] in foul trouble, so that definitely had an effect on the game,” senior Payton Willis.
The Boilermakers also came out of the gate red hot, hitting on all of their first eight shots. After that perfect start, Purdue missed its next seven shots and Minnesota came back to within four.
Purdue got back on track and quickly got a double-digit lead. Just as Minnesota looked to get momentum going into half, sophomore Jaden Ivey hit a three to take a 15-point lead into the break 51-36.
That 18-point deficit was cut all the way back to within seven, as the Gophers got stops and freshman Treyton Thompson scored five straight points with both Daniels and redshirt senior Eric Curry on the bench with four fouls.
That was the closest Minnesota got as the Boilermakers once again erased the Gopher momentum and started drilling shots and getting stops.
Sophomore Jamison Battle did his job early in the game to try and keep the game tight, connecting on a pair of threes to go for a team-high 12 points in the first. In the second half, Willis came alive.
The duo did all they could against a skilled opponent, but their 45 combined points weren’t enough. Willis scored a game-high 24 points and picked up 10 assists for a double-double, Battle scored 21 as both played all 40 minutes.
“I think it’s just competing on both ends of the floor. I thought we competed offensively tonight, and I thought at times that we competed on defense. But it’s just about putting it together for that full 40 [minutes],” Battle said.
Ivey scored a team-high 21 points with 10 rebounds while Edey dropped 14 points with 12 boards in just 27 minutes. As a team, Purdue shot 55.6% from the field and outrebounded the Gophers 39-23.
“I’ve told our guys, ‘we got eight losses, and all eight have been to top-30 net teams’. Now the challenge is going to be: Are you going to be able to use every lesson that we’ve learned from these losses to now try and snowball them into wins,” Johnson said.
The Gophers head back to the road for two games against Iowa on Sunday and Nebraska the following week on Wednesday. Minnesota lost to the Hawkeyes in their first matchup in the middle of January, but its contest against the Cornhuskers will be the one and only meeting of the year.
