(Wednesday) Men's basketball: Defensive pressure leads Boilers past Boston College
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 11/25/2008
Andrew Gatza
Junior guards Keaton Grant and Chris Kramer fight for a loose ball during Purdue's 71-64 victory against Boston College on Wednesday night.
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NEW YORK – The No. 10 Purdue men's basketball team builds its game plan around defensively wearing out its opponent.
In Purdue's 71-64 win against Boston College Wednesday night, that's exactly what happened. The Eagles hung within six points of Purdue for most of the night, even occassionally taking the lead, before becoming visibly worn down and allowing Purdue to take a 17-point lead.
"That's our goal every game," junior guard Keaton Grant said. "Just the pressure, to make sure we wear opponents out because we know they don't see that pressure all year. That's the one thing we want to do, something they've never seen before."
Purdue forced the Eagles to commit 16 turnovers, and in turn scored nine points off those turnovers. Ten of the 16 turnovers came in the second half. Five of those 10 second-half turnovers came between the 14:33 and 7:18 marks in the final half, when Purdue built an 8-point lead into a 17-point lead.
Boston College coach Al Skinner didn't think it was Purdue's pressure that led to his team's struggles, however.
"I give them credit for it being constant," Skinner said. "But we've been having issues. These are the same issues we've been having. This is our biggest challenge, being able to show some patience and execute it and not allow our internal clock to get sped up.
Purdue next plays Friday against No. 11 Oklahoma. Friday's game, the championship of the NIT Season Tip-off, will be held at 3:30 p.m. in Madison Square Garden in New York.