Rough-and-tumble affair goes to Purdue
INDIANAPOLIS - Northwestern has reveled in strong runs recently against Purdue in football and basketball, but those trends didn't translate Friday night when a football game broke out on a basketball court.
In a Big Ten tournament quarterfinal that needed twice as many officials in order to maintain order, second-seeded Purdue held off seventh-seeded Northwestern 69-61 in front of a pro-Boilers crowd at Conseco Fieldhouse.
The Boilermakers, who'll face Minnesota at 3 p.m. Saturday in the second semifinal, canned 29 of 39 free throws to NU's 21 of 27.
The Wildcats (20-13), who will return to practice Sunday in anticipation of an NIT berth later that night, failed in their bid to beat a top-20 Purdue squad for the third time in 12 months.
NU pulled within 62-61 on Jeremy Nash's 3-pointer with 45.8 seconds to go, but Purdue broke the Wildcats' press and senior guard Chris Kramer hit a circus layup for a 3-point play to lead the nation's sixth-ranked team to safety.
"The reason they've been beating us is because they've just been playing harder and getting the 50-50 plays and outrebounding us," Kramer said. "Tonight we outrebounded them and I felt like we played harder and made the plays down the stretch."
Harder, when it comes to Purdue (27-4), serves as a euphemism for ratcheting up the physical play.
Kramer and E'Twaun Moore (28 points) took turns muscling NU's John Shurna, who scored 16 points on 5-of-12 shooting and committed a season-high 6 turnovers.
Interestingly, the Boilers believed they merely reacted to a physical tone set by the Wildcats.
"Northwestern likes to get a little chippy, as you can see," said Purdue senior guard Keaton Grant. "You've got to keep your composure. Some things got a little out of control."
Northwestern coach Bill Carmody suppressed a smile upon hearing Grant's take.
"I don't know about that," Carmody said. "I think that they're known for a physical brand of basketball. But, hey, you're competing and it's the Big Ten. It reminds me of Bobby Knight. (Indiana) would set screens and they're illegal screens all day long and they call one out of three or four.
"That's how I feel in some of these games. I look back at them and say, 'That's a foul, that's a foul, that's a foul.' It's like pro football on the line. So I don't know. I thought (the refs) did a good job."
Grant's suggestion had at least one inarguable point - and it led to a crucial cluster of Purdue free throws that began with 9:04 to go and Northwestern within 45-43.
As Purdue's JaJuan Johnson made the front end of a 1-and-1, NU center Luka Mirkovic was whistled for an intentional foul when he elbowed Kelsey Barlow in the face as he began to box out.
Barlow sank 1 of 2 free throws and Johnson hit the back end of his free throw. Then Purdue retained possession and Johnson drew another foul and hit 2 more free throws.
So Purdue's lead zoomed from 2 to 7 in a 20-second span and Northwestern played catch-up the rest of the way.
"The emotions were running a little bit and I made a bad decision, which definitely I'm not going to repeat ever again," said Mirkovic, who received four injections before tipoff and four more at halftime to loosen his ailing back.
"I have to learn from my mistakes and just move on."