The "V" also stands for Victory

Our Boilers faced Valpo tonight and notched the 11th win of this season. While Purdue's offense was pretty poor, the defense, even sans Kramer was pretty noteworthy as Purdue held Valpo to just 45 points. Early on, Valpo's energy was not at all matched...but their poor shooting was as our Boilers scored single-digits in the first 10 minutes of the contest.

Once again, the team shot poorly from the three point arc, but Smooge nearly shot 50% (while leading the team in scoring), and the crowd favorite, Buckets shot 75% from three point land while scoring 9 points...and playing pretty solid defense and hustle-minded basketball for good measure.

JJ seemed to struggle with the quickness of Valpo's big man Igbavboa, but got into double-digits in the scoring column and blocked 4 shots of the Crusaders brazen-enough to test him inside. The Ostrich shot very poorly, but led the team in rebounding. LewJack continues to grow up and make mistakes, but his pace and overall game is getting better each week. Kramer, who was out with a foot injury was missed defensively.

Not a ton of emotion seemed to go into this game for Purdue...but our Boilers won easily, in spite of sleep-walking through much of the first 25 minutes, as they looked ahead to this week's BT opener v. Illinois on Tuesday at Mackey.

Stats by StatSheet.com

Now That's Big Ten Basketball!!

Mr. & Mrs. Boilerdowd gathered around the radio to listen to the riveting action from Mackey as Purdue eeks out a "W" (Special thanks to Comcast!)

The first time Purdue played and beat Iowa, the game was marked by big shots by Keaton Grant and a gritty performance down the stretch by the young Boilers.

This time in Mackey, Keaton put the game out of reach with a big shot once again with 1.4 seconds. This game's unusual foul-riddled ending was a microcosm of the rest of the game and luckily, Purdue came out on top, 51-50.


Gone were the big three pointers by Hummel, Grant, Kramer and Co...replaced by stupid fouls, poor decision-making and poor shooting. E'Twaun Moore led the offensive explosion with 12 massive points and Scott Martin poured in 11...Iowa's leading scorer had just 14 points.

So how bad was Purdue's offense? Well, the defense forced 22 Hawkeye turnovers, 11 were steals...conversely, the Boilers barely had double-digit turnovers...yet only yielded 51 points. That said, Purdue wasn't even in the bonus with just 4 minutes left as the Hawkeyes played force field defense never touching the Purdue cagers. Heck, even if they would have been, it wouldn't have mattered since Purdue barely shot over 50% from the charity stripe all game.

Many, Painter included, feared a letdown following the big win versus Wisconsin, and we all got it. Thank goodness this let down netted a game in the left-hand column at the end of the evening. Hopefully, this is the game many Purdue doubters saw coming...with the exception of the outcome- a poor showing versus a bad team.

You live and die by the three, and while Scott Martin shot well from behind the arc, no one else did...Hastily-selected bricks and lousy free throw shooting nearly yielded Purdue another loss at home to another bad team...but it didn't. As a result, Purdue's hopes for an invite to the Spring Ball are still alive and well...Next up, Illinois.