By Paul Trembacki
Sports Editor

TUCSON, Ariz. - Purdue's Jaraan Cornell has picked the right time to excel.

For the second game in a row, the senior came up big in the second half and led his team to a victory in the NCAA tournament.

After going scoreless in the first half, Cornell brought the Boilers back from a late deficit.

"You know in your heart that somebody's got to make some plays; somebody's got to step up if we want to continue," said Cornell. "I felt that it was my duty to help make some plays on offense and get this team rolling."

Cornell did just that. With 9:27 left to play and Purdue trailing, 49-44, Cornell still hadn't scored. But then he made a rebound basket and two consecutive 3-pointers. Cornell's 8-0 run gave Purdue a 52-49 lead.

And with 43.7 seconds remaining, he was fouled on a 3-point attempt.

"I went up to the line relaxed," said Cornell. "I had three free throw attempts to take and I wanted to step up. I just knocked all three of them down."

The shots broke a 60-all tie and gave the Boilers a lead they wouldn't relinquish.

Before the tournament, Cornell had hit just 4 of 25 shots during his last three games. He started slowly in each of the first two tournament games but followed his coach's advice.

Just as in Purdue's win over Dayton Thursday, Cornell remedied his shooting woes after a conversation with Coach Gene Keady. After their talk on Thursday, Cornell scored 10 points in the game's final nine minutes. He had another chat on Saturday.

"I told him at a timeout in the middle of the second half, 'Hey you're going to make a shot. Just shoot when you're open and don't worry about it,' " said Keady. "And he got something to go down and sure enough he got back in rhythm and he got his confidence."

Cornell scored 15 points and made five of his final seven field goal attempts. Keady said regaining a touch isn't limited to basketball.

"I guess it's kind of like putting in golf," said Keady. "When you get your confidence, you start making putts that you haven't made for a couple of weeks."

Cornell has been struggling on the basketball court in recent weeks. But he said he knew it was time to step up. Leading-scorer Brian Cardinal had only eight points and spent 10 minutes of the first half on the bench with two fouls. However, others helped fill the void.

"When a team needs big plays, they look for their older players, and Jaraan and Mike (Robinson) and Greg (McQuay) stepped up huge today," said Cardinal. "They're the ones that helped win the game. They're the ones that should all get a slice of the game ball."

Keady said it was good to see his seniors perform well.

"We just wanted to step up as seniors," said Cornell. "It's on us as seniors to lead our team and to carry our team and make the plays and make the defensive stops and be there for each other. We did that the last couple of games and hopefully we can keep rolling."

Cornell said that when he came in as a freshman he saw the potential for a trip to the Final Four. But Cornell has never gotten past the Sweet 16. The Boilermakers have made it to the final 16 teams in the NCAA for the last three years.

"Hopefully we can get over that Sweet 16 hump and just keep advancing," said Cornell. "We've just got to take it each game at a time and keep working and doing the things that we know that we're capable of doing.

"Like I told a few of my teammates, the third time should be a charm."