Purdue Catches Fire, Blows out No. 21 Minnesota on Brandon Newman's Big Night

Redshirt freshman Brandon Newman scored a career-high 29 points to help Purdue rout Minnesota 81-62 Saturday night at Mackey Arena, overcoming an early 14-point deficit.

Tom Brew | Jan 31, 2021

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – It doesn't matter if the storyline keeps repeating itself over and over as long as the result has a happy ending. That's the trend these days for the young but ever-improving Purdue Boilermakers.

The ''Baby Boilers'' once again fell far behind in the first half Saturday night against the No. 21-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers, trailing by as many as 14 points. But no worries. Purdue roared back behind redshirt freshman Brandon Newman's 29 points, and wound up crushing the Gophers, 81-62.

It's the fourth time this season that Purdue has trailed by 11 points or more and came back to win, tying a school record set in the 1982-83 with one of Gene Keady's first teams a mere 38 years ago.

It's also Purdue's seventh win by at least 15 points against a nationally ranked team in the past three seasons, tops in the country.

"We have a lot of examples because we put ourselves in this position all the time. The speech I give at halftime, I should probably give before the game,'' Purdue coach Matt Painter said with a laugh after the victory. "Getting to five points (from 14) at halftime was huge, because we've been in worse situations than that before. It shows that they can keep their composure.

"Give our guys credit. We really talk to them about them about that, about just keep on playing. Our struggles in the first half are things that have happened to us before. They didn't panic, and they just kept on playing.''

Minnesota has some huge wins this year, most notably Michigan and Iowa as top-five teams at home, but they've struggled on the road in the Big Ten, losing all four games. That didn't seem to matter early, when they made 6-of-8 three-pointers out of the gate to take a 24-10 lead midway through the first half. That was surprising, because Minnesota is dead last in three-point percentage in the Big Ten.

What was also surprising was that Marcus Carr, Minnesota's leading scorer, didn't have any of those 24 points. He was blanketed all night by Purdue junior Eric Hunter Jr., who never let up. And once Purdue's offense finally got rolling, Hunter kept Carr out of the game and allowed the Boilers to roar back. Carr was just 2-for-13 shooting on the night, missed all five three-point attempts, and finishing with just six points.

It was the first time all year that Carr didn't reach double figures. Hunter was that good on the defensive end.

"It wasn’t all me, of course. My teammates helped me out on that," Hunter said "He’s a good player, obviously, he’s an All-American. I watched a lot of film and paid attention to detail on ball screens."

Purdue, which is now 7-4 in the Big Ten and 12-6 overall, had active hands all night, and had eight steals. Newman, who scored a career-high 29 points, called Hunter's defense "contagious."

"It was a huge part of why we won," Newman said. "His energy and the way he was locked in the whole time was amazing. We followed his lead in that department."

Newman, the redshirt freshman from Valparaiso, Ind., had his best night as a Boiler, making 9-of-14 shots, including 5-of-6 from three-point range. Those five makes from three tied a school record. He also made all six of his free throws. He previous high was 21 against Oakland back on Dec. 1, and his best in a Big Ten game had been 17 against Maryland on Christmas Day.

"I thought I was getting in the flow of things more offensively and defensively," Newman said.

Newman's output was the fourth-highest all-time by a Purdue freshman, trailing only Kyle Macy (38), Russell Cross (32) and A.J. Hammons (30).

Purdue made eight three-pointers on the night, all in the second half and all of them by freshman. Mason Gillis (two) and Jaden Ivey had the others. Purdue's freshmen scored 51 of its 81 points, and that 63 percent total was the second-most in the Painter era.

Purdue also dominated on the boards, which made a huge difference. The Boilers took advantage of those second chances, especially in the blowout rout during the second half. Purdue had 21 second-half points.

Purdue had 17 offensive rebounds and outrebounded Minnesota 44-27 overall. Trevion Williams was a big part of that, getting 17 points and 14 rebounds on the night, including six offensive rebounds. It was his seventh double-double of the season.

It was another impressive performance by Purdue against a ranked team. Over the past six seasons, Purdue is now 18-5 at Mackey against top-25 teams. Purdue has been unranked in 15 of those games, posting a 12-3 mark in those games.

There were other interesting numbers that came out of Saturday's win. It was the 800th game played inside Mackey Arena, and Purdue is 655-145 during that time. It was also Painter's 174th Big Ten win, tying Harry Coombs of Illinois for eighth all-time. Michigan State legend Jud Heathcote (182) is next on the list.

It was Purdue's second game without Sasha Stefanovic, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 21 and will miss 17 days per the Big Ten's coronavirus protocols.

Next up for Purdue is a road trip to Maryland on Tuesday. The Boilermakers are back at home on Saturday against Northwestern, and Stefanovic will be eligible to return then, provided all his testing goes well in the coming week. The Boilers and Gophers then get together again after that, on Feb. 11 in Minneapolis.

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