Purdue proves to have too much for the Wisconsin Badgers to overcome

MADISON – Zach Edey is the face of Purdue basketball.

But as Wisconsin coach Greg Gard noted before the teams met Sunday, the second-ranked Boilermakers have surrounded the 7-foot-4, 300-pound center with a plethora of talent.

Edey was among four Purdue players to score at least 12 points as the Boilermakers showed their ability to handle a top-10 foe and a hostile crowd by grinding out a 75-69 victory over No. 6 UW in front of a boisterous crowd of 17,071 at the Kohl Center.

"They can hurt you in a lot of different ways," Gard said. "They’re really complete. They’ve got a lot of pieces. We have a lot of pieces.

"The difference-maker is Zach. You can’t simulate that. When they need a bucket, he hits a jump hook. When they need a bucket, he gets to the free-throw line.

"That is the challenge of playing a team so good."

The Badgers (16-6, 8-3 Big Ten) fell 1 ½ games behind the Boilermakers (21-2, 10-2) in the chase for the regular-season title.

Remember the teams close the regular season on March 10 in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Illinois (17-6, 8-3) moved into a tie for second place with UW by outlasting visiting Nebraska, 87-84, in overtime Sunday night.

Purdue extended its winning streak to seven games and UW lost consecutive games for just the second time this season.

"We remember after what happened the last time we lost two games," UW's Steven Crowl said, noting UW won six in a row and 12 of 13 games after losses to Tennessee and Providence. "We went on a pretty big run.

"We’ll just have to learn from it and move on."

Edey came in averaging 24.8 points and 13.5 rebounds in Big Ten play. He was limited to just four field-goal attempts in the opening half Sunday and his first field goal didn't come until just 4 minutes 57 seconds remained in the half. After scoring five points in the first half, Edey scored 13 points in the second half.

BOX SCORE: Purdue 75, Wisconsin 69

Edey hit 7 of 13 shots, grabbed 13 rebounds and added two assists and set a program record by scoring in double figures for the 74th consecutive game.

Six of Edey's rebounds came on the offensive end. The Boilermakers snared 14 offensive rebounds and held a 21-14 edge over UW in second-chance points.

"We just wanted to hammer the glass as much as we could," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "We’ve got a good offensive rebounding team. We just wanted to keep that pressure on the rim. Get quality shots, but also give a great effort on the glass.

"He (Edey) is such a load to keep off. And what we have found through the years is that when you go down there and help that center box out, it opens up other guys to get some long rebounds and keep the basketball alive."

Point guard Braden Smith, shooting 46.2% and averaging 12.1 points per game, hit 5 of 10 shots and scored 11 points in the first half. Smith finished with 19 points, six rebounds and three assists.

Guard Lance Jones hit huge shots throughout the game and led Purdue in scoring with 20 points. He hit 3 of 7 three-pointers and 8 of 14 shots overall and added six rebounds and three assists. Fletcher Loyer added 12 points.  

Purdue used a forward, starting with Trey Kaufman-Renn, to shadow Crowl, who finished with eight points and five rebounds. That allowed Edey to guard Tyler Wahl and sag into the lane and play a one-man zone.

Wahl eventually found openings to attack the basket and finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists to lead UW.

"I just thought his offense was better than our defense," Painter said of Wahl, who hit 10 of 16 shots. "He does a good job of working the baseline and getting those angles."

AJ Storr added 14 points but missed all four of his three-point attempts and 11 of 15 shots overall. Jones was Purdue's primary defender on Storr, who came in averaging 16.5 points per game and shooting 33.3% from three-point range and 44.9% overall.

"We were trying to keep him in front," Painter said. "He can make some tough shots when he gets it going. We just didn’t want to give him the lay-ups, the and-1’s, the wide-open threes, anything in rhythm. Just make things difficult.

"Lance did a good job on him. Our team did a good job on him."

Max Klesmit added 10 points for UW, but none after halftime. Chucky Hepburn and Connor Essegian added six points apiece.

UW came in shooting 35.8% from three-point range but went 0 for 11 in the second half and finished 3 for 19.

Gard said he needed to break down the video to evaluate UW's shot selection, but said his gut reaction was that his players too often settled for jumpers. That contributed to UW attempting just 14 free throws to 23 for Purdue.

"I’ll go through the quality of the shots, but I thought we took too many jump shots and didn’t attack (enough)," Gard said. "We did at times and moved the needle, got to the free-throw line…and then we’d go away from it. Then we’d come back to it and we’d go away from it. You have to be consistent.

"When you are playing at this level you have to check every box. You can’t check three of five or five of seven. You have to be elite in a lot of areas. We weren’t enough today and that is a credit to Purdue and how they played."

UW took care of the ball, with 15 assists and only five turnovers, and limited Purdue to 27.3% three-point shooting (3 of 11). But the Badgers were awful from three-point range (15.8%) and didn't get to the free-throw line enough.

"Obviously, they are a really good team," Gard said. "I think we have a really good team but we’ve got to get better in some of the simple things – decision-making, shot selection, those things that can take us to another level...

"Competition at the highest level can be very rewarding. It can be very painful, as today is. But now we’ve got to get better before we get to March and see them again."