The Boilermakers set the tone defensively and used a balanced offense to roll to a 80-50 victory.


WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue center Isaac Haas thumped his massive right hand against his chest as the timeout horn blared throughout Mackey Arena.

The senior center wasn't celebrating a dunk or one of his under-duress hook shots. The No. 21 Boilermakers had just forced their 10th Valparaiso turnover of the first half heading into the under-four minute media break.

Purdue's ability to turn the Crusaders over and stymie their most productive scorers laid the foundation for an 80-50 victory on Thursday.

Valparaiso came in as one of the eight remaining undefeated teams in Division I. If that wasn't enough motivation for Purdue, coach Matt Painter said he showed his team box scored from both Ball State's 39-point loss to Oklahoma and the Cardinals' upset victory at Notre Dame earlier this week.

The Crusaders became the latest non-Power Five opponent to leave Mackey Arena flattened. Purdue has beaten SIU-Edwardsville, Chicago State, Fairfield and now Valparaiso by an average of 41.5 points.

"We had a lot of respect for them," said Purdue forward Vincent Edwards, who said he called teammate P.J. Thompson after the Ball State-Notre Dame game.

"You can't take anyone lightly with the upsets that are going around in college basketball, and we didn't want to be a part of that. We just followed our scouting report."

Three reasons why Purdue won its fifth straight game on Thursday: 

• Valparaiso came in ranked third nationally in effective field goal defense, per It had been especially adept at frustrating teams on the perimeter, holding opponents to 25 percent 3-point shooting coming in.

However, the Boilermakers set the defensive tone Thursday.

BOX SCORE: No. 21 Purdue 80, Valparaiso 50

Valparaiso was already struggling to make shots before Matt Haarms subbed for Haas and started blocking them. With the centers altering shots and intimidating drives on the backside, Purdue's guards continued to get up into Valpo ballhandlers and force mistakes and hurried shots.

"We wanted to come out pressure the ball and make them uncomfortable in their sets," Thompson said. "Force them to try to get one shot and then run, and then try to go score on offense." 

The Crusaders turned the ball over 18 times in while shooting 33.3 percent from the field. Purdue scored 18 points from its takeaways.

"It was out of character," Valparaiso coach Matt Lottich said. "Usually we're the ones forcing a lot of turnovers and they did it to us tonight."


P.J. Thompson, Vincent Edwards and Isaac Haas discuss their fifth straight victory. Nathan Baird/Journal & Courier

• Coming off of back-to-back 20-plus point scoring performances and Big Ten Player of the Week honors, Haas played a relatively quiet first 10 minutes. 

At the under-8 timeout, Purdue led 17-12 but Haas had attempted only one field goal. To that point, most of his production had come from drawing a handful of fouls.

Coming out of the timeout, Haas touched the ball on the next four Boilermaker possessions. He scored on the first possession, drew the attention that left P.J. Thompson wide open for a 3 on the next, assisted a Vincent Edwards layup, hit two free throws and assisted Edwards again.

That stretch formed the nucleus of an 18-2 run with which Purdue took control of the game.

Unlike Northwestern, which rarely doubled Purdue in the post last Sunday, Valparaiso constantly brought extra defenders to help against Haas, Haarms and Vincent Edwards. While Haas made only 2 of 6 field goals, he also didn't turn the ball over. He facilitated offense where a younger version of himself might have forced action into the double teams.

"I knew Vince was going to be open. He communicated that to me early in the game when I missed him a couple of times," Haas said. "After that I managed to step back and see him, feed him and see everybody else who opened up when they started to take him away."

• Some of Purdue's best players didn't let jump-shooting woes get them down.

Carsen Edwards came into the game 2-for-15 from 3-point range over the previous three games. He still couldn't buy a perimeter look Thursday. So he relied instead on his quickness and driving instincts to attack the lane for layups and dishing off the occasional assist.

Carsen Edwards scored 14 points without making a 3.

"We talked about him trying to be more aggressive in transition in terms of driving the ball and not shooting those 3s," Painter said. "He just needs to continue to be aggressive but understand attacking a primary break — you have a three-on-two, a four-on-two — is different than attacking a set defense when all five bodies are back and 10 eyes are looking at you."


The Boilermakers coach on another lopsided non-conference victory at Mackey Arena. Nathan Baird/Journal & Courier

Vincent Edwards made 32 percent of his shots last weekend against Maryland and Northwestern. He finally connected from 3 against Valparaiso. However, he was most effective slashing and cutting through traffic to get to the rim.

Vincent Edwards collected 15 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two steals, finishing just shy of his fifth double-double.

"That's just having shooters such as P.J., Ryan and Dakota being able to space the floor the way they do," Vincent Edwards said of scoring off the dribble. "It opens up driving lanes. Carsen's always as effective off the dribble as you can get. It's just choosing and picking my angles a little bit."

Dakota Mathias knocked down a pair of 3s early in the second half as Purdue built off of its 36-16 halftime lead.