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Mackey Arena is one of the toughest places to play in the country. It’s loud, it’s rambunctious. But against the Wolverines, it was quiet.
The No. 2 Michigan men’s basketball team (25-1 overall, 15-1 Big Ten) silenced No. 7 Purdue (21-5, 11-4) in West Lafayette, winning by a final score of 91-80.
With such anticipation for the matchup, the energy in the gym was tense, and it showed with the play on the court. Both teams were playing tight, and the score reflected that. Purdue fared a little better in the opening minutes taking a 7-2 lead four minutes in, but 3-pointers from graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg and senior guard Roddy Gayle Jr. kept the Wolverines in the game.
The Boilermakers’ offense is one of the best in the nation, but it primarily runs through star point guard Braden Smith. In the first half though, forward Trey Kaufman-Renn was the only release valve. The Wolverines took Smith out of the game, and that makes Purdue one-dimensional.
It was a low-scoring game considering the two prolific offenses, and with 13 minutes left in the first half, the Boilermakers held a slim 11-10 lead.
But Michigan snapped out of the daze first. From the 13-minute mark to the 4:23 mark, the Wolverines ripped off a 32-11 run to take a 42-22 lead, stunning Purdue and the crowd alike.
The Wolverines were attacking the offensive glass, collecting eight offensive rebounds and cashing in 14 second-chance points in the first half. Lendeborg, freshman guard Trey McKenney, and sophomore guard L.J. Cason all knocked in 3-pointer reloads off of offensive rebounds. They also utilized their size, finding junior center Aday Mara in several post isolation scenarios against smaller defenders.
Michigan also continued to shut down Smith, holding him to zero points in the first half and limiting his success in Purdue’s usually-productive pick and roll game. The Wolverines’ offense got going, and Purdue’s never did.
Entering halftime, Michigan flaunted a 16-point cushion, leading 48-32.
Out of the break, Purdue looked much more confident than it ever did in the first half. Smith scored his first four points of the ball game and Kaufman-Renn added six more of his own in the first five minutes of the period. But junior guard Elliot Cadeau‘s two 3-pointers and graduate guard Nimari Burnett‘s dunk kept the lead safe. As the clock ticked under 15 minutes, the Wolverines were up 14 points, 56-42.
After a relatively quiet first half in which he scored just three points, Cadeau took over in the second. He added three more buckets on top of his two 3-pointers, scoring 12 of Michigan’s first 14 points in the period. While Purdue was finding its stride on offense, mainly by force-feeding Kaufman-Renn down low, Cadeau’s spurt was instrumental in keeping the Boilermakers out of true striking distance.
The squads were more or less trading buckets, but Michigan was more than happy to tread water with a 69-54 lead and just eight minutes to play.
Every time Purdue seemed poised to go on a run, the Wolverines had a response. Whether it was Cason’s tough finishes around the rim or a pair of crowd-silencing 3-pointers from McKenney, they simply wouldn’t let Purdue back into the ball game.
Very slowly, the Boilermakers shrunk the lead from 15 points, then to 13 points, then to 11 points, but Michigan didn’t back down. Instead, it came back and used offensive rebounds and a 3-pointer from Lendeborg to raise the lead right back up to 16 points at 79-63 with 4:16 to play.
Purdue whittled its deficit down to eight points with under two minutes to play, but the Wolverines’ previously accrued lead was too much to overcome in such little time.
The once-raucous crowd was mum was the clock hit zeroes. Michigan had passed the first of the week’s two top-10 tests, acing this one with flying colors in a convincing 91-80 win.
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Eli Trese
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