Top-seed Arizona's second-half surge ends Purdue's quest for another Final Four

SAN JOSE – Under the heavy weight of expectations, this journey started 144 days ago against Evansville inside the comforts of Mackey Arena.  

The expectations, though, were real and embraced by everyone in the program. Players. Coaches. Support personnel. The administration. The fan base.  

The path to Saturday night’s Elite Eight matchup against Arizona wasn’t a burden. Far from it. The Boilermakers preferred to reach as high as possible for the brass ring and kept climbing until a team prevented them from going any further.  

That team was the top-seeded and second-ranked Wildcats, who leaned on their talent, skill, and efficient offense to derail Purdue, 79-64 on Saturday night. 

Purdue, which began as the nation’s preseason No. 1 team, ended at 30-9. It won the Big Ten tournament after falling short of the league’s regular-season title.  

Meanwhile, Arizona exorcised its demons. The Wildcats are headed to the Final Four in Indianapolis for the fifth time, but first since 2001. Coach Tommy Lloyd’s group clearly has the makeup of a national championship winner and will get a chance to prove it at Lucas Oil Stadium.  

PDF: Purdue-Arizona statistics

PURDUE COACH MATT PAINTER

PURDUE PLAYERS

The Boilermakers were right there, leading 38-31 despite foul trouble to Trey Kaufman-Renn, who picked two in the first eight minutes. Daniel Jacobsen saw significant minutes, and Oscar Cluff played the entire first half.  

But the Wildcats showcased their firepower early in the second half.  

Keyed by Jaden Bradley, Arizona found its rhythm and attacked the basket. Bradley scored four straight points to ignite a 16-3 run, capped by Anthony Dell’Orso’s 3-pointer with 12:28 to play and a 51-45 lead.  

The Wildcats stretched the advantage to 59-49 on Koa Peat’s offensive rebound and basket and never looked back.

Arizona’s points in the paint (40) and its free-throw shooting (20 of 22) help push Lloyd’s team to the Final Four.  

Purdue, though, couldn’t find its shooting touch in the second half. It missed 16 of its first 22 field goals, including 0 of 6 from 3-point range. The Wildcats outscored the Boilermakers 48-26 after halftime.

Cluff led the Boilermakers with 14 points, Smith had 13, and Kaufman-Renn added 10.

The Boilermakers, the second seed in the West Region, were unsettled early, and two quick fouls on Kaufman-Renn forced Painter to juggle his rotations to maintain enough size to combat the Wildcats’ big men.  

But Braden Smith was the calming influence, directing the offense and also looking to score. After not shooting well from 3-point range in the Sweet 16 against Texas, the Boilermakers found their touch.  

Purdue made 7 of 14 from 3-point range in the first half, including three by Smith. However, the production from Gicarri Harris and Fletcher Loyer allowed the Boilermakers to stay close and eventually overtake the Wildcats.  

With Kaufman-Renn saddled with two fouls, Jacobsen gave Purdue significant minutes, especially on the defensive end. Although he was credited with one blocked shot, his presence was noticeable in the paint.  

After the Boilermakers fell behind 19-12, the offense started to click, and the defensive rebounding became a factor. Purdue outscored Arizona 26-12 in the final 12:13 to take the seven-point advantage into the locker room. 

Saturday marked the end of the most successful run of a senior class in Purdue history. It will be hard for another group to surpass, or even match, what Kaufman-Renn, Loyer and Smith accomplished in the last four years.  

The trio played in 445 games combined, including 65 consecutive sellouts at Mackey Arena. They shattered school records – Smith even became the NCAA’s all-time leader in assists – dazzled crowds on the road and exotic locations, lived atop the polls, won Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles twice, and reached the Final Four two years ago.  

They’ve continued a standard of excellence that the program has established under the leadership of Matt Painter and Gene Keady and will pass the torch for next year’s team.  

Kaufman-Renn and Smith were selected to the West Region All-Tournament team. They were joined by Bradley and Peat, who was named the Most Outstanding Player, along with Mark Tramon from Texas.

“THEY’LL WEAR YOU DOWN”

The Boilermakers had a seven-point lead early in the second half, but the Wildcats revved up their talent and skill and proceeded to impose their will. It’s the largest halftime deficit Arizona has faced and won an NCAA Tournament game

They lived in the paint. They were successful at the line. The 10 offensive rebounds led to 15 second-chance points. Peat and Motiejus Krivas combined for nine offensive rebounds, paving the way directly for 11 points.  

“They’ll wear you down,” Painter said. “Their ability to get the ball in the paint. Whether that’s getting an offensive rebound, whether that’s driving the basketball. If you look at how they play, they don’t shoot and really make a lot of 3s, but their ability to get by you, their ability – they have such good positional size and quickness. 

“They get in transition, and they kill you. They get on the glass and kill you. If you had told me that they would have outrebounded us by one and we would have four more offensive rebounds, I would take that any day of the week against those guys. Any day of the week.” 

The Boilermakers finished with 11 turnovers, leading to 15 points, but didn’t execute the simple plays. It took away scoring opportunities and allowed the Wildcats to thrive in transition.  

“We had a handful of plays that weren’t simple, and we had to do a better job there,” Painter said. “When you get that snowball, we miss our free throws, they don’t. We had some positive things to start the half. 

“We put ourselves in a position to win the game, obviously, at halftime, and that’s what hurts the most because sometimes when you get against those great teams, you don’t even get in position. You’ve got to get yourself in position.” 

“HE WAS GREAT FOR US”

Foul trouble forced Cluff to play a season-high 39 minutes. He was off the floor for a total of 42 seconds.  

“I think I was just trying to leave everything on the floor,” Cluff said. “And I wasn’t thinking about minutes or anything else. I was kind of just thinking about winning. But it was tough.” 

Cluff totaled 14 points and 10 rebounds, hitting both the offensive and defensive boards equally. He also blocked two shots and was a big presence inside.  

“Cluff played his ass off,” Lloyd said. “I felt like he got every rebound out there.”  

The transfer from South Dakota State was needed to play because of foul trouble to Kaufman-Renn. He held up well with the extra minutes.  

“He was great for us,” Painter said. “He gave us what we needed. Great attitude. Tough dude. He fit in. But O.C. was fabulous for us. Man, he’ll compete. He’ll foul you about 15 times in a game, too. He’s going to lay it on the line. He’s going to hit.  

“He loves games like that. He loves the physicality of the game. Good dude to be around.” 

JACOBSEN STEPS UP

With Kaufman-Renn in and out of the lineup because of the fouls, that brought Jacobsen into the mix. He played for several minutes next to Cluff, a combination that doesn’t see a lot of practice time.  

“We do a little, but nothing like that,” Cluff said.  

Jacobsen was thrown into the deep end, dealing with Arizona’s bigs and trying to keep the ball out of the paint. He played 12 minutes – the most since the regular-season finale against Wisconsin.  

“He stepped up in a big way,” Cluff said. “It’s hard to ask anyone to come in for foul trouble, when it’s been a rough couple of weeks. He did a great job.”  

Painter didn’t know how Saturday’s game would play out, and didn’t feel he did a “good job of prepping (Jacobsen) to play alongside Oscar, because we haven’t done that a lot.”  

Jacobsen missed a pair of free throws and didn’t score, going 0 of 1 from the field. But the 7-foot-4 sophomore was needed on the defensive end.  

“I think there are situations like tonight where our best lineup might just be going big,” Jacobsen said. “Foul trouble probably played a little bit into that, too.” 

Going into the locker room, Painter talked to Jacobsen about co-existing with Cluff.  

“I thought he did a really good job of helping us there in a pinch,” Painter said. “I was just trying to encourage him to … when you don’t know, don’t fake it. That’s not his fault; he doesn’t know because he wasn’t in the position that he was playing.”