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Purdue Outlasts UK 66-65
CATS ATTRACT CAPACITY CROWD OF 14,123
Just like it is in the Southeastern Conference, the Kentucky Wildcats pack in basketball fans like no one else on the road. There was no exception in West Lafayette, Indiana, last Saturday as the Purdue Boilermakers played host to the Cats, and came away a 66-56 winner.
Of seven home games in the month of December, only the Kentucky game will be sold-out in West Lafayette, and that isn't to mention live television in both Indiana and Kentucky.
And it was to be a revenge match for the Boilermakers who were destroyed by the Cats in Louisville a year ago when Purdue was getting set to become co-champions of the Big Ten.
Tickets outside Mackey Arena were being scalped for $20 to $25 each and the roaring crowd inside left no doubt that Purdue students and fans were set for the kill.
PHYSICAL PLAY DOMINATES EARLY GOING
From the outset, "physical" play was the name of the game and the mixed officiating crew of Jim Bain (Big 10), Ted Hillary (Big 10), and Reggie Copeland (SEC) made sure they were part of the game also.
In the first five minutes alone, twelve personal fouls were whistled and only five points had been scored with Purdue holding a 3-2 score.
Neither team was able to sustain any offense, Kentucky's lone two points coming on a Roger Harden lay-up off a break-away in-bounds play. All three Purdue points came from the charity line.
Defense was the name of the game, but officials were allowing very little of that to be played also.
Purdue finally ran off a string of eleven straight points for an 11-2 lead before guards Ed Davender and James Blackmon found the range and Kenny Walker began getting the ball in the paint for some nice soft jumpers.
In fact, the Cats outscored the home-standing Boilermakers 14-1 in one late first half stretch to take command of a 24-19 score when Winston Bennett took over with two jumpers.
Bennett, seeing his first action of the season, played 24 minutes and gave the Cats a lot of inspiration. Despite UK's sudden offensive success, on the other end, guards Mack Gadis and Steve Reid were piling up the free throws after whipping the UK's defense.
In the first half alone, Purdue shot 21 free throws to only five for the Wildcats, holding an 11-point advantage alone in that department, more than offsetting UK's 12-6 edge in field goals.
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Boilermakers' Defense Too Tough TURNOVERS PLAGUE WILDACATS BOTH HALVES
Despite inconsistency on both ends of the court with their offense and defense, it was turnovers which did the Wildcats in. Of the game's 22 mistakes, twelve were in the first half when nine different Wildcats committed at least one mistake.
Twice, Kentucky was unable to get the ball past mid-court in the required ten seconds. Five times, the Cats were guilty of walking with the ball. Four times, the Wildcats were guilty of fouling with a teammate in control of the ball.
Despite the outcome, Joe B. Hall gave credit to Purdue rather than criticizing his own team. ' T think it was a case of excellent defense that forced us out of our offensive continuity. We knew if their guards got open, they could hit the long jumper and they did it on us a few times,'' said Hall.
CATS STAY CLOSE FORTEN MINUTES
Kentucky cooled off considerably during the intermission and found itself in another scoring drought the first eight minutes of the last half, scoring only four points until the 12:37 mark.
Other than Walker's four-foot hook and Bennett's jump from the middle, Kentucky did not score a single point until 12:37 when Blackmon cashed in on a pair of free throws. By that time, Purdue had built up a 39-34 lead after trailing by one point at the half.
From that point on, Purdue began to pull away and eventually held command of a 50-38 score with 8:49 left in the game. A few minutes later, Purdue went up 56-40 on a pair of free throws by Gadis. By that time, only the final score mattered.
Kentucky did rally somewhat in the final three minutes and gave the Boilermakers a mini-scare when the Cats sliced the score to 60-54 on a steal and lay-up by Blackmon. During that stretch, UK outscored Purdue 10-2 as Purdue went into a semi-delay, trying to use most of the 45-second clock before shooting each trip down the floor.
FREE THROWS DECISIVE IN CONTEST
The two clubs fought a stand-still in the rebounding department where each club managed 28 boards. Kenny Walker had game-high honors with 9 while James Bullock was tops for Purdue with 5.
Scoring honors went to Walker and Blackmon with 16 each. Gadis was tops for Purdue with 15 followed by Reid with 13. Of their 28 points, 16 came from the free throw line.
For the game, UK shot 52.4 percent from the floor, certainly good enough to win most games had it not been for the 22 floor errors. Purdue shot only 42.9 percent on 18 of 42, but the Boilermakers made only 12 turnovers. Kentucky hit 12 of 16 from the free throw line to 30 of 41 for Purdue.
KEADY SAYS UK GOT PURDUE FIRED UP
"The crowd really helped us," said Purdue coach Gene Keady, "sometimes it takes a game with someone like Kentucky to get you fired up. I don't know why but if you could get players up for 28 games a year like this you should write a book about it."
Despite the loss, Hall said he felt better about the effort than the opening game against Toledo.
"I felt it was a better effort than in the Toledo game, but it still was not good execution on our part. This was caused by Purdue's good defense, said Hall.