Le Journal

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The Boilers suffered just their second loss of the season with a 67-69 loss to the UCLA Bruins on the second game of their west coast trip this season following defeating USC. Purdue struggled against a very average UCLA team on both ends of the court, a trend that has followed them for the past several games where the Boilers look great in stretches and then suddenly have the bottom fall out. The Boilers fall to 17-2 and will return back to Mackey Arena to face an Illini team who will be without star guard Kylan Boswell due to injury. Let’s check this game out ‘by the numbers:’ 12 The Boilers seemed fully in control of this game with 7 minutes remaining in the first half. The trio of Smith, Loyer, and TKR were on the bench and the backups had built a lead up over the course of several minutes that one would assume would lead to a big half time lead and an opportunity for CMP to rest his main contributors even more in the second half. As Lee Corse would say…’not so fast my friend.‘ UCLA would go on to outscore Purdue 17-5 over the final 7:09 of the first half to take the score to 32-32 into half after the Bruins were down 12 points. It got so dicey for Purdue in that stretch that the only two point field goal Purdue hit in that span was a wildly thrown up, late shot clock shot by Fletcher Loyer. In fact, Purdue would end up allowing a 35-19 run by the Bruins that spanned the first and second halves over the course of nearly 16 minutes. Purdue is too talented and too experienced to only score 19 points in that length of time. That would, however, not be the only lead Purdue would give up in this game. 8 Even with the struggles through the middle parts of this game, Purdue had seemingly finally gained a foothold and taken a 6 point lead with just 1:56 left following a Braden Smith three pointer and a TKR bucket to make the score 67-61. The Boilers would not score again and UCLA would go on to score 8 unanswered points to take the two point victory. It wasn’t just that Purdue lost a tightly contested and physical game, it was the manner in which it happened. In the final possessions, Braden Smith had two turnovers and the defense left a 40% three point shooter wide open off a very basic on ball screen above the free throw line. That Bilodeau three pointer gave the versatile big man 14 points on the night and the signature win that UCLA needed to even be in consideration for the NCAA tourney. Prior to that run, UCLA held just a 5.4% win chance according to Kenpom. These runs, something Purdue seemingly had gotten fixed after the embarrassing Iowa State loss, have started rearing their ugly heads again and casting doubt into the effectiveness and toughness of this Purdue team. 4 Braden Smith just didn’t look right during the UCLA game as he was battling through a knee injury he sustained against USC. The senior guard said his knee didn’t feel right in interviews following that game but there was little question if he would play against UCLA, even being placed as questionable in the B1G injury report. This was seemingly a matchup that Smith could rack up a good number of assists against a UCLA team that was outmatched at almost every position and doesn’t have the interior presence to contend with Cluff, TKR, and Jacobsen. Instead, it is a game I’m sure Smith wants to wash from his memory. Smith was only able to accumulate 4 assists which tied for a season low with the Alabama game (he did score 29 points as he was the primary option in that game). The West coast and warm weather didn’t do Smith any favors as he only netted 9 total assists but had ten total turnovers. That’s not going to cut it for a player who is favored to win the B1G’s player of the year and is a short list NPOY candidate (although it seems Cam Boozer is running away with that award). Smith now sits at 931 assists for his career and has fallen way behind on his quest for the all time NCAA record. 8.5 & 5.3 As TKR goes, so go the Boilermakers. That much was…

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