Guards lead Boilers to season-opening victory over Valpo

By Paul Trembacki
Sports Editor

VALPARAISO, Ind. — Crusader guard Ali Berdiel, his team down 71-69 and the clock ticking below 20 seconds, dribbled up court against Purdue's Willie Deane. Once Berdiel got to the 3-point arc, he tried to get around Deane or draw a foul that would have sent him to the line for the tying free throws.

Instead he fell down and lost the ball.

John Allison recovered the ball, got fouled and hit two free throws to make it a four-point game with 9.4 seconds to play. Valparaiso's final play failed and the Boilers won their season opener on the road, 73-69, Friday night.

"What we work on is containing the dribble with what we call a 12-second drill where we make a guy guard somebody for 12 seconds and try to get a five-second call or make him cough it up," Purdue coach Gene Keady said.

That drill paid off Friday.

"It was a good defensive play," Valparaiso coach Homer Drew said. "It would have been wonderful if they called the foul, but they didn't call a foul.

"You have to credit Deane with his quickness on defense creating that turnover."

Deane had made two of his five turnovers in the game's final minute.

"Well, I felt bad when I turned it over," Deane said. "I guess I tried to force something that wasn’t there. So I just tried to make up for it at the defensive end."

The play of Purdue's guards at both ends was the key to the game. Deane, a junior, had 11 points and two steals and senior Maynard Lewis led the Boilers with 19 points, hitting 5 of 6 field goals, including 3 of 4 3-pointers, and all six of his free throws.

"Maynard shot the ball extremely well," Keady said. "Ever since we started practice Oct. 13 he's really been consistent."

Lewis had five of Purdue's first 14 points with junior forward Darmetreis Kilgore adding five more.

Kilgore, a Tyler (Texas) Junior College transfer, had 11 points at halftime.

"For his first game in Division I he could have been uptight but he wasn't," Keady said. "He made some shots early for us."

Kilgore finished with 16. He cooled off after he missed a 26-foot 3-point attempt in the second half.

The play of Lewis and Kilgore provided Purdue (1-0) with an early lead. And after trailing 6-5 a few minutes in and coming back to tie the game at 6, the Boilers held the lead for the final 35 minutes and 48 seconds, aside from the brief moment when the game was tied at 55 with approximately seven minutes to play.

The Crusaders (0-1) never trailed by more than eight, but there were only a few times when they made a serious run at capturing the lead.

Valparaiso senior Lubos Barton, the Mid-Continent Conference's preseason player of the year, had six steals but just two points (which came with six minutes left) and three rebounds. He was ineffective because of a broken thumb on his shooting hand.

"I had a tough night," the Czech Republic native said.

Antonio Falu led Valparaiso with 21 points and center Raitis Grafs had 17 points — 13 in the second half — to go with nine rebounds and two blocks. The Crusaders outrebounded Purdue 45-40.

Purdue's top returning scorers from last season, center John Allison and forward Rodney Smith, were ineffective — Allison had six points and five rebounds while Smith had just four points and four boards before fouling out with 4:17 to go. Purdue's guards, however, made up for it to send the Valparaiso record crowd of 5,425 fans home unhappy.

"This was a huge win," Keady said. "It was amazing that we never relinquished the lead. That's hard to do in this gym with their coaching staff and their players."

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Sports editor:
Paul Trembacki

Assistant sports editor:
Doug Healey

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