Purdue Blows Big Lead, Loses to Marquette

Boilermakers lose second straight game by not being able to finish down the stretch, losing an 18-point lead in the 65-55 defeat on the road at Marquette.

MILWAUKEE, Wisc. — A disturbing trend is emerging with Purdue's basketball team early in the season, and it's not good. For the second straight game, the Boilermakers let a lead slip away, and it cost them big.

Purdue (1-2) was up 18 points at one point against Marquette, but it struggled to score throughout the second half and everything went terribly wrong. In the end, it was Marquette — and not Purdue — that cruised home with the double-digit victory.

"We blew the game. We could have been up by 20. We were 3-for-10 from the free throw line in the first half and had three fast-break layups that we got nothing out of,'' Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "In the second half, it flipped. We should have had the game at a distance. They were more aggressive than we were, had more energy than we did.

"We're still searching for all of our players to be tougher. You have to have more resolve, more mental and physical toughness, and we don't have that. We fight people for 15 or 20 minutes, but we have to fight for 40 minutes.''

Purdue kept Marquette superstar Markus Howard in check, holding the school's career leading scorer to 18 points, but Golden Eagles  junior guard Koby McEwen picked up the slack. The transfer from Utah State scored 18 of his game-high 23 points after halftime.

"I was just really trying to set the tone for my team," McEwen said. "I'm considered one of the leaders on the team, so it's my job to try to get the guys going."

He did exactly that, and it helped Marquette get over the hump in a bad spot. Marquette had never beaten Purdue before, going 0-for-9 all-time. They also have struggled in this Gavitt Games event against Big Ten teams, losing by 15 or more three straight years to Purdue, Iowa and Indiana. 

McEwen hit a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left before halftime to cut the lead to 13. He stayed hot, and Purdue couldn't get anything done offensively. 

Purdue scored just 17 points in the second half on 5-for-25 shooting, and didn't score a field in the final six minutes. Purdue had only two players — center Matt Haarms (14) and guard Jahaad Proctor (13) — score more than six points in the game.

It was like night and day, and players from both sides saw it.

"Just basically locking in and playing harder," McEwen said of Marquette's turnaround. "We had better ball pressure, making sure we talked on back screens and staggers and all that."

Painter was not surprised by McEwen's success, and he had even warned his players about him.

"He's a good player, a good combo guard," Painter said. "We played him at Utah State in a Cancun tournament a couple years ago when he was a freshman.

"Actually I wrote it up on the board, how good he was. Everything gets pushed toward Markus (Howard) and rightfully so, but I explained how good (McEwen) was and how we need to get to him and show him that kind of respect."

Howard finished with 18 points on 6-for-12 shooting against some harassing defense from the Boilermakers. "I thought we did a good job on Howard,'' Painter said. 

With this sudden swing in momentum, it's clear the Boilermakers are still looking for answers. For as much as Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski could be happy, Painter had to be equally upset in the turnaround.

"A 28-point swing in a game is a huge swing and it takes character to do that," Wojciechowski said. "I thought our players and team and program showed great character against an outstanding program, and I was very proud of that."

It's hard to be on the wrong end of a 28-point swing, too.

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