Mason Gillis Catches Fire, Fuels No. 1 Purdue Basketball in Win Over Penn State

Purdue junior forward Mason Gillis scored a career-high 29 points and went 9-of-12 from the 3-point line in an 80-60 victory against Penn State on Wednesday at Mackey Arena.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — It felt as though Mason Gillis couldn’t miss, and as he kept putting the basketball through the net, the reverberated chants of his name filled the air inside Mackey Arena.

Gillis scored a career-high 29 points and made nine 3-pointers, the most by a Purdue player in the venue’s history, leading the No. 1-ranked Boilermakers to an 80-60 rout of Penn State on Wednesday. He was 10-of-14 from the field and added three rebounds in 25 minutes on the floor.

“It doesn’t feel like I did anything different than other games. I just hit a couple shots and they kept falling,” Gillis said. “I think sometimes I hesitate to take some of the shots that I took today. I kind of just proved to myself that I can do it in-game.

“I do it every single day, so there’s no reason I can’t make shots. Sometimes it’s more of a self-confidence thing, I kind of hesitate. Tonight, when the first couple ones went it, I said I’m going to keep shooting it.”

Entering Wednesday’s matchup, Penn State led the Big Ten in 3-point shot attempts, hitting on an average of 10.7 per game. Senior forward Michael Henn appeared ready to continue that trend and light up the scoreboard for the Nittany Lions in the early minutes.

Henn knocked down three of his first four 3-pointers to open the game and notched 11 points before the break. But Purdue took advantage with a 14-2 run to take a double-digit lead with 9:19 left before halftime as Penn State went cold from the perimeter.

Junior center Zach Edey dominated the glass, coming down with five offensive rebounds as the Boilermakers registered nine second-chance points in the first half. The Nittany Lions did everything possible to prevent the 7-foot-4 center from taking over from the opening tip, but he still managed eight points and nine rebounds in the first 20 minutes.

Gillis started to catch fire from deep when things got clogged underneath the basket. He quickly made four 3-pointers and had 12 points as the team took a 35-29 lead into the locker room.

“It’s hard to double when dudes are making shots down like that, and it showed today,” Edey said. “They wanted to double big-to-big, but Mason is just hitting a shot every time they do that. So it threw them off their rhythm, threw them off of what they wanted to do.”

Gillis, a 32.1% 3-point shooter this season, was 4-of-7 from beyond the arc and the catalyst for Purdue leading by as many as 12 points in the opening period. But that advantage was cut to six as Penn State made five of its last seven shots heading into halftime.

“For me, it just shows to keep working,” Gillis said. “I haven't had the same season as last year or the type of season I've wanted, but the coaches have just told me to keep working. I've told myself to keep working. My teammates tell me to keep working. I tell them to keep working.”

Rewarded for his first-half efforts, Gillis got the start over sophomore forward Caleb Furst when the two teams took the floor again. He returned the favor by scoring the first 11 points for the Boilermakers after the break, kickstarting a dominant 21-2 run.

The Nittany Lions managed just three field goals in the first nine minutes of the second half and were buried under a deficit that piled up to as many as 26 points. By the time they began chipping away at the lead that Gillis and the Boilermakers had built, it was already far too late.

“I see the work every day,” Purdue junior guard Ethan Morton said of Gillis. “He’s the epitome of just doing your job no matter what’s going on. I told him everyone is acting like this is unbelievable, I’ve seen him do this for three years.”

Penn State senior guard Seth Lundy scored a team-high 18 points to go along with six rebounds. Fifth-year senior guard Jalen Pickett had 12 points, seven assists and five rebounds.

Edey, in a quiet performance for his National Player of the Year frontrunner standards, finished the game with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting and grabbed 13 rebounds. Freshman point guard Braden Smith also posted a season-high nine assists and didn’t turn the ball over in the victory.

Purdue, now 22-1 on the season and 11-1 in Big Ten play, will go on the road for three of its next four matchups. The team tips off against rival Indiana on Saturday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall for the first of two meetings this season against the Hoosiers.

“Mason says it almost every day in practice. One day at a time, we’re one step closer to our goal,” Morton said. “Our first of three goals is a Big Ten championship, and then we work from there.

“It’s easy to look around the league and see that we’re in a good spot, but we have to keep looking at it one game at a time. I thought it was great to get this one tonight.” 

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