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How Purdue basketball held on to beat Yale, improving to 3-0

Vaseline November 12, 2024

WEST LAFAYETTE − Three home games and three hard-fought wins against mid-major programs.

Yale has been the best of the early season (which will only be the case until Alabama visits on Friday), but Purdue basketball has found ways to make plays in critical times.

In the first half it was Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith.

In the second, Cam Heide and Myles Colvin.

The twelfth-ranked Boilermakers needed everything they had for their 92-84 win.

Purdue basketball turning point

The hot hand of NCAA tournament hero John Poulakidas makes Yale a dangerous team. The sniper kept Yale at a very long distance.

When Yale got its chance, trailing by six early in the second half and following a Purdue miss, Trey Kaufman-Renn’s hustle was rewarded. Kaufman-Renn provided a rebound that seemed to be there for the taking at Yale.

Kaufman-Renn threw the ball to an open Colvin on the wing and the sophomore sank a 3-pointer to go up 54-45 with 15:22 remaining. Purdue wasn’t crazy about the Bulldogs, but that needed breathing room when the game looked like it could turn.

Exactly eight minutes of play later, Colvin’s fastbreak dunk rocked Mackey Arena as Purdue went up by 12. But Kaufman-Renn’s hustle was emblematic of the kind of play Purdue needs to win against better opponents.

Boilermakers do not have a rim protector

Yale made it clear from the start that it would take advantage of the Boilermakers in their first game after Daniel Jacobsen’s injury.

The Bulldogs’ first eight points came at the rim.

Yale stuck with what worked.

The Bulldogs scored 50 of their 84 points in the paint.

3 stars

Braden Smith, Purdue: In the first nine minutes of the game, Smith already had 11 points, including three three-pointers. Purdue’s do-it-all junior point guard finished with 22 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals.

Fletcher Loyer, Purdue: The yin to Smith’s yang is at an all-time high. Purdue called a timeout with 7.2 seconds left in the first half. The Boilers got the ball ahead to Loyer, who faked a handoff and drained a buzzer-beater 3 to cap a 5-for-5 first half. Loyer’s only two points in the second half came at the free-throw line with 46 seconds left, but the Boilers needed all 12 of his first-half points.

John Poulakidas, Yale: The senior guard from nearby Naperville, Ill., was contained early but also showed the hot hand that helped the Bulldogs upset Auburn in last year’s NCAA Tournament. Poulakidas finished with 23 points and made five threes.

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.