Purdue Slips by Gophers 59-58
February 24, 2010

Keaton Grant’s jumper with 7.7 seconds left gave the third-ranked Purdue Boilermakers a 59-58 win over the Minnesota Gophers at Williams Arena. The Gophers missed a chance to win when Devoe Joseph missed an open jumper, and Damian Johnson’s rebound and putback came just after the buzzer to end the game.

Led by its junior frontcourt of Robbie Hummel and JaJuan Johnson, the Boilermakers jumped to an early lead. Five minutes into the game, Johnson had six points, four rebounds, and a block while Johnson had a pair of three-pointers for a 12-2 lead, forcing Minnesota coach Tubby Smith to call a time out.

Another three-pointer by Hummel gave Purdue its largest lead, at 26-12, but soon after the game turned. Hummel was moving through the lane when he went down, untouched, with a knee injury, causing him to leave with 7:11 left in the half and the Boilermakers up 26-14. “Losing a key player during the game makes it hard to adjust,” said Purdue coach Matt Painter. (Hummel was later found to have torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, ending his season.)

The Gophers had started the game with a man-to-man defense but, with Hummel gone, shut down the Boilermakers with a zone. Purdue got a pair of baskets for a 30-17 lead with just under five minutes left in the half. That was it for the Boilermakers for the rest of the half and for more than five minutes in the second half.

The Gophers came back to cut the lead to 30-23 at halftime. In the second half, the Gophers came out shooting, cutting the lead to one on three-pointers by Devoe Joseph and Ralph Sampson. Sampson’s then gave the Gophers their first lead of the game with a hook shot and extended the lead with a layup after a pass from Colton Iverson. Another Sampson field goal, getting the bounce off the rim, followed by one of two free throws, gave the Gophers 19 straight points and a 36-30 lead.

John Hart broke the Purdue drought with a three-pointer, more than 10 minutes after the last Boilermaker basket. The Gophers came back and extended the lead to 44-35 on a three-point play by Damian Johson.

Purdue had dominated the boards in the first half, but stronger rebounding by the Gophers made a difference in the second half. The Boilermakers pulled to within a point on several occasions and, down 53-52, had the chance to get the ball back with under two minutes left. However, Johnson grabbed an offensive rebound following a miss by Iverson, and was fouled while laying the ball in. His conversion put the Gophers up by four with 1:46 to go.

A three-pointer by Grant brought Purdue back to within a point. The Gophers ran time off the shot clock before putting up an errant shot. Iverson had the position for another offensive rebound but missed a putback. Lewis Jackson got the rebound for Purdue, raced downcourt, and dished to E’Twaun more for a layup and 57-56 lead with 40 seconds to go.

Minnesota got a roll and drop on a soft one-hander from the lane by Lawrence Westbrook with 25 seconds left. At the other end, Jackson made a baseline drive to the basket and kicked the ball out. Grant took the pass at the high post, moved inside the three-point line, and popped a jumper to put Purdue back in front.

After Damian Johnson’s basket was ruled too late, the Boilermakers celebrated their 24th win of the season.

Sampson led all scorers with 21 points, 13 of them in the second half when he said he exploited his weight advantage over JaJuan Johnson, who had 14 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocked shots.

Gopher Holes: Former Boilermakers coach Gene Keady was at the game and sat behind the Purdue bench. Both teams took care of the ball well, Minnesota finishing with eight turnovers and Purdue with just seven.