Rapid Reaction: Purdue Battles Past Green Bay to Win Season Opener
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — There were the usual first-game miscues, but Purdue was mostly on point in winning its season opener 79-57 over Green Bay on Wednesday night at Mackey Arena.
The Boilermakers, ranked No. 23 in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 poll, won their seventh straight opener, and this one came at the expense of former Purdue player Linc Darner, who's now the head coach at Green Bay.
Jahaad Proctor led Purdue's balanced scoring attack with 26 points on 11 of 17 shooting, doing a nice job of getting free and moving without the ball, and also finishing in traffic. He also had 5 rebounds.
Matt Haarms, Purdue's 7-foot-3 center, had a big game as well. He had a near-perfect stat line — 16 points on 5-for-6 shooting and 4-for-5 from the line — and the highlight of his night was a made 3-pointer with 4:40 left in the game. He hit it with his left shoe not completely on. He had tried to slide his foot back into the shoe on the way up the court, but he was unsuccessful. When the ball came to him, he hit the 24-footer anyway. It was his second 3-pointer of the night.
Eric Hunter Jr., the 6-foot-4 sophomore from Indianapolis, played well and had a career-high 15 points.
Purdue jumped out to an early 14-2 lead, but then went through nearly a 5-minute lull without scoring and Green Bay cut the lead to two at 14-12. But the Boilers went on a run pushed the lead back up to 17 points a few minutes before halftime. The lead was 13 at the turn, with the Boilers leading 35-22.
Green Bay kept making mini-runs in the second half, getting it to 10 points once, but Purdue always had an answer. By the 12-minute TV timeout, the lead was up to 19 points, the largest of the night to that point, at 53-34.
Green Bay, which plays in the Horizon League, was able to hang around mostly because it got hot from the 3-point line in the second half. After missing all 6 attempts in the first half, the Phoenix made their first three long balls in the second half.
A night of firsts for Purdue
FIRST BASKET BY A PURDUE RESERVE: At halftime, we're still waiting for that one. Bench guys 0-for-4 from the field in the first half.
FIRST PANIC MOMENT, PURDUE VERSION: Nojel Eastern walks off the floor and straight to the locker room, holding his wrist in pain at the 5:30 mark.
FIRST PANIC MOMENT, GREEN BAY VERSION: Green Bay coach Linc Darner, a former Purdue player from 1990-94, had to call a timeout at the 17:10 mark after Purdue dashed out to an 8-0 lead.
FIRST BASKET: Aaron Wheeler drove hard to the rim and scored on a layup at the 19:15 mark for the first score of the season for Purdue.
FIRST STARTING LINEUP: Matt Haarms, Jahaad Proctor, Eric Hunter Jr., Aaron Wheeler, Nojel Eastern.
FIRST INJURY: Sophomore guard Sasha Stefanovic missed the game with a foot injury sustained in practice on Monday. It's not expected to be a long-term concern, but he is questionable for Saturday's home game against Texas. He was on the bench in sweats, with a boot on his right foot.
NEXT UP: No. 23 Purdue plays the Texas Longhorns on Saturday at Mackey Arena. Game time is at 7 p.m. ET. Texas, coached by Shaka Smart, is not ranked in either the AP or Coaches Poll, but did receive six votes from the coaches.
