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Purdue ambushed by Arizona in second half as Final Four dreams go up in smoke
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Purdue was 20 minutes away from its second trip to the Final Four in 3 years, holding a 7-point halftime lead on the No. 1 seed in the West Region final.
But then it all went wrong for the No. 2 seed Boilermakers in Saturday night’s fateful second half in San Jose, as high-flying Arizona showed the country how dangerous it can, steamrolling Purdue for 48 points in those final 20 minutes and cruising to a 79-64 victory that sent it to Indianapolis for a shot at ultimate glory.
It’s the Wildcats’ first trip to the Final Four in exactly a quarter-century, when they came up just short in the 2001 national title game against Duke. Arizona, which improved to 36-2, is 2 victories away from its first national championship since 1997, which was also its only national title in program history despite decades of sustained success.
Meanwhile, Purdue was left to wonder what went wrong in the second half, finishing at 30-9 and a victory shy of getting back to the Final Four to try to finish the job it couldn’t 2 years ago in losing to UConn in the national championship game.
Arizona ambushed the Boilermakers after halftime, starting the second half on a 20-7 run that set up a drama-free final 20 minutes that led Purdue to the bitter end of another special season under Matt Painter.
That Arizona lead swelled to double digits when Koa Peat’s layup gave the Wildcats a 59-49 advantage with 8:46 left. Purdue was back on its heels and suddenly running out of time, while Arizona was cruising toward Indianapolis and a Final Four meeting next Saturday night against the winner of Sunday’s Midwest Region final between No. 1 seed Michigan and No. 6 seed Tennessee.
Purdue got the deficit down to 6 at 59-53 on Oscar Cluff’s 2 free throws with 7:49 to go. But Tommy Lloyd’s Arizona team simply kicked it into high gear again, scoring the next 7 points to effectively end the competitive portion of Saturday night’s game.
The Boilermakers shot 38% from the field for the night, and that wasn’t going to be good enough against an opponent the quality of Arizona, which shot 47% from the field and killed Purdue at the foul line, going 20 of 22.
The Wildcats, who ruled a powerful Big 12 this season, also took care of the ball, turning it over only 6 times, and they had 4 players in double figures led by Peat’s 20 points. Peat added 7 rebounds and 3 assists, and Ivan Kharchenkov chipped in 18 points and 8 rebounds. Brayden Burries and Jaden Bradley each had 14 points as Arizona was merciless when it counted.
Purdue looked like it might have some magic in March after emerging from an up-and-down regular season to win the Big Ten Tournament a few weeks ago. But it didn’t have enough firepower to combat Arizona, with the great Braden Smith’s brilliant college career coming to an end after he put up 13 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists.
Cluff added 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Trey Kaufman-Renn chipped in only 10 points on 5-of-14 shooting for the Boilermakers, who fell a little bit short of the ultimate goal yet again.
With Purdue sent packing in the West Region final and Arizona moving on to Indianapolis, here is what the Kalshi market currently looks like for the 6 teams left standing for a shot to cut down the nets on April 6:
