Alabama left it all on the court, but came up on the short end in West Lafayette tonight as host Purdue managed the 87-78 victory.
This matchup lived up to the billing right from the start. The Boilermakers generally held the lead for the first 20 minutes, but there was never any sort of separation. Purdue leaned heavily on big man Trey Kaufman-Renn, who is about as fundamentally sound with his back to the basket as one can be. Alabama had a terrible time from the three point line in the first half, but Mark Sears and Labaron Philon seemingly got to the rim at will.
Defensively, it couldn’t have been more clear that Cliff Omoruyi was the missing link last season. Not only did Kauffman-Renn have more success against anyone other than Cliff, but Purdue had a far more difficult time driving to the basket. Purdue guard Fletcher Loyer knocked down a three at the buzzer to close out a highly entertaining half, with the Boilermakers leading by two at 42-40.
The second half remained tight, as the two heavyweights traded blows. The Tide started hitting some threes, Philon in particular, and briefly had a six point advantage. Purdue quickly battled back and found themselves with their own seven point advantage when freshman C.J. Cox hit back to back threes with just over eight minutes to play. Alabama managed to pull within four on a couple of occasions after that, but Purdue just made too many shots to lose.
In the end, the Boilermakers shot 56% from three while Alabama made 31%, with several that seemingly went halfway down before bouncing out. It’s a testament to the type of team that Alabama has that they made it as competitive as they did against a very good opponent, on the road, in that situation. The Tide really didn’t do anything to lose this one. They turned the ball over eight times, which isn’t awful but Purdue turned it over only three. Alabama had a slight rebounding edge in the game as well.
Sears shot poorly tonight, which you don’t worry about too much, but Philon had a bona fide breakout game. The freshman poured in 18 points on 70% shooting, including 3-4 from three.
This is a super talented roster, but they are still learning to play as a unit and this brutal stretch of games will ultimately make them better. It would be good to get a win or two as they go along here though, just for NCAA seeding purposes. Next up is a Wednesday night battle with a good Illinois team in Birmingham.
Roll Tide.
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