Boilers survive slow start,
beat Spartans 57-34
By Anne McLaren
Assistant
Sports Editor
As Purdue coach Kristy Curry said, it wasn’t
pretty, but the Boilers won their eighth straight contest by defeating
Michigan State 57-34 in Mackey Arena Thursday night.
The Boilers (16-3, 6-0 Big Ten) and Spartans (8-9,
2-4) started slowly. Four minutes into the contest the score was tied
at two. With the Spartans leading 11-9 with 10 minutes until halftime,
senior Katie Douglas scored nine unanswered points to give the Boilers
a comfortable lead. At halftime, No. 6 Purdue led 22-15.
"The first five minutes we were missing shots and
then we had mixed box outs," said Purdue center Camille Cooper. "It
was tough just getting out."
In the second half, the Boilers stretched their
lead to 11 before Michigan State cut the lead to 32-28. But on the next
possession, Douglas hit a jumper. After a steal by Purdue’s Candi
Crawford, Purdue’s Kelly Komara hit a floater in the lane to put
the Boilers up by eight points.
"It was not just Kelly and I," said Douglas. "The
five people on the court looked at each other and really knew that we
had to step it up defensively. I think that once we got going in the
second half – the first half was pretty ugly – but I think
after we got a few easy baskets … it got our team going."
After Michigan State cut the lead to four, the
Boilers outscored the Spartans 25-6 to account for the final margin,
including a 20-2 run in which Michigan State turned the ball over seven
times.
"They’re a very, very good team," said Michigan
State coach Joanne P. McCallie. "They showed why they’re the top
team in the conference."
Douglas led all scorers with 15 points. The All-American
also contributed seven rebounds, four steals, three assists and three
blocks.
"Everyone wants to talk about her point production,"
said Curry, "but I think what they don’t understand is that she’s
having so much more of a complete game and it’s really helping
our team have more of a complete year."
Cooper chipped in 11 points and six rebounds while
freshman Shalicia Hurns pulled in a team-high eight rebounds and 10
points. Michigan State freshman Julie Pagel led the Spartans with 10
points and nine rebounds.
The zone defense Michigan State employed seemed
to confuse the Boilers offensively at times. Despite turning the ball
over a season-low 10 times, Purdue scored just 57 points while shooting
42 percent from the field.
"We’ve been very successful against the zone
up until tonight," said Curry. "I think we set the tone the first five
minutes and it kind of shadowed from there offensively. I felt like
we were prepared coming in and it’s just a matter of us coming
out and being the aggressor and reversing the basketball."
Michigan State's defensive efforts pleased McCallie,
especially because the Spartans brought just eight players to West Lafayette.
Leading scorer Becky Cummings missed the game due to a recurring foot
injury that has kept her out of five games this season.
• On Sunday, the Boilers travel to Champaign,
Ill., to face the Fighting Illini (9-8, 4-1) in a 3 p.m. (EST) game.
Although the Illini struggled in their tough non-conference schedule,
they are in second place in the Big Ten, 1 1/2 games back from Purdue.
"They’re looking to get a piece of us," said
Douglas. "We just got to come in prepared and more aggressive, obviously.
We’ve got a lot of things to work on between now and Sunday. It’s
a big game – probably the biggest one of the year."
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