Short-handed Indiana Beats Back Boilers in overtime

The Drum Beat
Purdue Women’s Basketball
Shawn Martin
ExcelHSports

In a Mackey Arena atmosphere reminiscent of when both head coaches played for Purdue during the heyday of Boilermaker Women’s basketball, Teri Moren’s 5th ranked Hoosiers overcame a late 8-point deficit to force overtime, and then dominated the extra period to beat their archrival 73-68 in front of 8,505 paid attendees.

Indiana played without two starters – All-American Mackenzie Holmes (knee) and Nicole Cardano-Hillary (health and safety protocols) – and faced an energetic and inspired Boilermaker squad looking to announce the programs resurgence under first year head coach Katie Geralds. In a game that was a classic battle of bitter rivals, both teams fought tooth and nail for 45 minutes, each using only seven players and getting prime time performances from their stars, and in Purdue’s case, their two subs.

Purdue jumped out first, with sophomore Madison Layden and junior Abbey Ellis combining for nine points that culminated with Purdue leading 9-2 with 5:51 remaining on an Ellis layup. The Hoosiers settled down and chipped away over the next 4:07 and took their first lead (12-11) on a jumper by sophomore Chloe Moore-McNeil. Purdue would score twice more, closing out the first quarter up 15-12.

The second quarter saw both teams improve their shooting mostly in the paint. Both teams shot 50% from the field and each team led a portion of the quarter, but neither could pull away. Layden made a layup with 37 seconds left in the half to give the Boilers a 32-27 lead heading into the locker rooms.

Indiana (14-2, 6-0) came out and started the second half with an 11-2 run over 5:45. IU senior Aleksa Gulbe hit a jumper with 5:44 remaining in the quarter that put the Hoosiers up 38-34. The scoring rut for Purdue (11-6, 2-4) ended when Ellis scored on a layup with 4:15 left. Ellis tied the game almost a minute and a half later with another layup, then she assisted on a go ahead three-pointer by senior Cassidy Hardin. That 7-0 spurt put Purdue up 41-38 with 1:24 left in the quarter. IU senior Ali Patberg hit a jumper and teammate Kiandra Browne (soph) made a free throw and we were headed to the 4th quarter knotted up at 41.

Little did anyone know that the fun was just beginning.

Through the first three minutes of the 4th quarter, the teams exchanged points pretty much back and forth. Layden made a layup with 7:23 on the clock that put her team up one. A Hoosier turnover and subsequent foul, led to two free throws by reserve senior guard Brooke Moore. Purdue’s other reserve – freshman Ava Learn – hit a layup with 5:30 left to put the Boilers up 50-45. IU senior guard Grace Berger cut the lead to 3 with a jumper with 4:57 left in regulation. Another layup by Learn, closely followed by a three-point basket by Ellis put Purdue up eight – 55-47 – with 3:21 left and had the majority Purdue crowd in Mackey rocking.

After Moren calmed her troops with a time out, Gulbe made a layup, then Berger hit 4 free throws around an Ellis layup, and the stage was set for the last 1:03 of regulation with the host team up 57-53.

Berger made a jumper with 28 seconds remining to cut the lead to 57-55. Layden is fouled and calmly sinks both shots to put Purdue up four. Then Berger finds Patberg on the right wing, and she nails the three much to the delight of the couple of thousand IU fans in the house. 59-58 Purdue with 19 seconds left. Gearlds calls timeout, which advances the ball to half-court. On the inbounds, IU junior Grace Waggoner steals the ball, and passes to Moore-McNeil, who has her shot attempt blocked by Purdue junior Jeanae Terry – who was the in-bounder on the errant pass.

Moren calls timeout and sets up a made Berger jumper with eight ticks left in the game to seemingly give the Hoosiers the improbable win.

Hold on though, it ain’t over yet.

After another Purdue timeout, the Boilers get the ball to Ellis, who drives the lane, misses, gets her own rebound, and is fouled with one second left by Berger. Ellis misses the first, then sinks the second to send the game into overtime.

Gulbe and Patberg nail threes within the first 45 seconds of the extra period to give the Hoosiers some cushion, then held off Purdue for the win.

Berger led the Hoosiers with 24 points, Gulbe had 21, and Moore-McNeil and Patberg added ten each. Ellis had a spectacular game scoring 19 points to lead the Boilers. Moore came off the bench for 18, while Layden was her normal steady self with 15.