Trey Kaufman-Renn poured in 21 points, Braden Smith added 20 with six assists and fourth-seeded Purdue gritted out a 75-63 victory over No. 13 seed High Point in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday in Providence, R.I.
Kaufman-Renn shot 10-for-16 and had eight rebounds to guide the Boilermakers (23-11). Camden Heide added an 11-point, 10-rebound double-double for Purdue, which will face either No. 5 Clemson or No. 12 McNeese in the second round of the Midwest Region on Saturday.
D’Maurian Williams scored 12 points and Trae Benham added 11 to pace the Panthers (29-6). The Big South champions entered their first NCAA Tournament in program history on a 14-game winning streak.
Purdue outrebounded High Point 45-24, including 19-7 on the offensive glass. High Point lost despite doubling up Purdue from the perimeter — 10 made 3-pointers to Purdue’s five.
“That’s what won us the game,” Kaufman-Renn said of the rebounding margin. “I think we have done a better job lately on rebounding, put more of an emphasis on it from a player standpoint and we got to keep that up if we want to keep winning.”
The Panthers used a 6-0 run to draw within 59-56, but Kaufman-Renn answered with a long turnaround jumper with 6:48 left.
“Yeah, that was an incredible shot and we were lucky that went down,” Smith said of his teammate’s key play. “They’re a great team and they were here for a reason and they showed why. And the game was so back and forth the entire time, and I think me and Trey and all these other guys who have been through it, we understand how to keep our composure and stay with the game.”
Smith made a layup and was left open for a straight-ahead 3-pointer that restored Purdue’s lead to 10 with 4:28 remaining.
From there, Purdue played the possession game with its tough defense and rebounding. The Panthers only managed to make three field goals in the final 7:46 of the game.
“Clearly we’re disappointed. We didn’t come here to lose,” High Point coach Alan Huss said. “We came here to compete and for stretches of the game, we did just that. When you have a long week, a long layoff like we had, you make choices as a coach and we limited contact and probably didn’t do a good enough job of emphasizing rebounding for the last week. That’s on me.”
High Point led for much of the first eight minutes thanks to its proficiency from the arc. Five different players combined to make the Panthers’ first five 3-pointers, with Abdoulaye Thiam’s triple at the 9:28 mark tying the game at 20-all.
Kaufman-Renn went to the bench when he picked up his second foul, but about two minutes later, head coach Matt Painter subbed him back in and the forward made three quick buckets to build a six-point Purdue lead.
Myles Colvin and Heide added back-to-back putback dunks for a 35-25 margin, and the Boilermakers led 37-27 at halftime.
Both offenses were connecting to start the second half, with High Point starting 8-for-12 and Purdue 7-for-10. The Panthers drew within 43-39 on Benham’s trey with 16:16 to go, but Purdue built the lead back to 10 six minutes later.
–Field Level Media
