No. 3 Purdue is one victory away from matching the school’s single-season record of 30.
The top-seeded Boilermakers take aim at the mark on Saturday when they face fifth-seeded Wisconsin in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament at Minneapolis.
Purdue advanced with a 67-62 win over the eighth-seeded Spartans in a Friday quarterfinal. The Badgers (21-12) moved on with a 70-61 quarterfinal victory over fourth-seeded Northwestern. The Boilermakers went 2-0 against Wisconsin in the regular season.
Purdue (29-3) has won 30 games just once previously, hitting the mark with a 30-7 campaign in the 2017-18 season. That version of Boilermakers had their season end in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
Purdue had a chance to reach 30 last season, but that bid ended when it became the second No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 seed as Fairleigh Dickinson produced a 63-58 upset.
That collapse has been hanging over the Boilermakers all season. Star center Zach Edey said it is good for the calendar to say March.
“This is what our team was waiting for the whole season,” Edey said after producing 29 points and 12 rebounds against the Spartans. “Obviously, it didn’t go the way we wanted it to last season. We had to wait a year, and now we’re back and we’re ready to go.”
Purdue held a 12-point, second-half lead against Michigan State but saw the Spartans really to tie the score at 56 with 1:41 left.
However, Fletcher Loyer canned the tiebreaking 3-pointer 19 seconds later as the Boilermakers held on.
One scare for Purdue came when All-Big Ten first-team point guard Braden Smith went down with a calf injury with 12:26 left in the game. Smith initially was holding his right knee before being taken to the locker room.
He returned to the game with 8:32 remaining but played tentatively down the stretch, finishing with five points and eight assists.
Purdue coach Matt Painter said Smith would be re-examined.
“He pulled a calf muscle or got hit in the calf or something like that,” Painter said. “I thought he wasn’t the same. He wasn’t as aggressive. … Sometimes those things the next day you’re perfectly fine, and sometimes they get progressively worse. So we’ll just kind of see what’s going on and see how he’s feeling.”
Wisconsin also is dealing with an injury situation as guard Chucky Hepburn was ruled out shortly before the Northwestern game. Hepburn has a lower-body injury that coach Greg Gard didn’t shed light on.
“I was told about 30 minutes before the game that he wasn’t going to — he said he couldn’t go,” Gard said. “Obviously the health of our guys is always first and foremost, so I completely leave that up to our trainers and our medical people.”
John Blackwell started in place of Hepburn and had just three points on 1-of-8 shooting before fouling out.
Wisconsin overcame Hepburn’s loss as AJ Storr scored a career-best 30 points on 10-of-16 shooting.
“I think it was because I started off attacking the rim and got to the free-throw line a little bit,” Storr said of his solid performance. “I got my rhythm and got my feet underneath me. It’s over from there.”
Storr is averaging 20.5 over the past four games.
Wisconsin’s Steven Crowl also stood out with 19 points and seven rebounds. Crowl made 8 of 12 shots.
The Badgers lost 78-70 at Purdue on Sunday when Edey had 25 points and 14 rebounds for the Boilermakers. Wisconsin fell 75-69 at home on Feb. 4 in the first matchup.
–Field Level Media
