GLENDALE, Ariz. — The road to redemption for the Purdue men’s basketball team will make a final stop in the NCAA tournament title game. The top-seeded Boilermakers left little doubt about that while dispatching No. 11 seed North Carolina State, 63-50, on Saturday in the Final Four at State Farm Stadium.
Center Zach Edey again led the charge with 20 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two blocks to send the Boilermakers (34-4) to their second appearance in the national championship game and their first since 1969. They will face fellow No. 1 seed Connecticut on Monday night.
“It was one of those grinder-type games where we made a few more shots, a few more threes,” Purdue Coach Matt Painter said after the Boilermakers went 10 for 25 (40 percent) from behind the arc. “Obviously wanted to keep establishing Zach inside, kind of playing off of that in terms of they were doing some different things with him and just making the right decision, then being able to attack at that point or take the threes that we were given. We made enough of those.”
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Ahead by seven points late in the second half, Purdue used a 9-1 burst to separate for good and claim its 11th win in 12 games while ending an improbable postseason for the Wolfpack (26-15). N.C. State had matched the lowest seed to reach a Final Four but had its nine-game winning streak end amid 36.8 percent shooting, including 5 for 19 (26.3 percent) on three-pointers.
DJ Horne scored 20 points for North Carolina State, the ACC tournament champion that trailed for all but 31 seconds Saturday. Edey, at 7-foot-4, played a major role in limiting Wolfpack forward DJ Burns Jr., typically a difficult matchup because of his elegant footwork and passing, to eight points on 4-for-10 shooting.
Sensing a run might be at hand, Boilermakers fans rose early in the second half and were rewarded with consecutive three-pointers from Mason Gillis and Lance Jones (14 points, 4 for 9 on three-pointers) to stretch the lead to 45-33 with 12:40 to play.
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The climb was even more demanding for North Carolina State without ailing Michael O’Connell. The starting point guard had his left thigh wrapped and spent the first few minutes of the second half pedaling on a stationary bike. The athletic training staff also worked with O’Connell to the side, directing him to jog. He eventually went back to the bench but did not reenter, with seldom-used junior Breon Pass playing in his stead.
“When Michael’s injury occurred, it definitely changed us,” Wolfpack Coach Kevin Keatts said of the graduate transfer from Stanford. “It [meant] under the circumstances going to Horne handling the ball a little bit more than we wanted to. I thought Breon came in and did a good job for us. That being said, we’ve been playing seven or eight guys. One of your key guys go down, it changes a lot.”
Several opportunities to pull away in the first half eluded Purdue, which led 35-29 at halftime but had moved ahead by 12 points, at 28-16, with 6:29 to go. The Wolfpack, playing an extended portion of the half without Burns, who was sitting with two fouls, leaned on Horne, and its leading scorer in the regular season delivered.
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His pull-up jumper got North Carolina State as close as 32-29 until Fletcher Loyer’s three-pointer with nine seconds to play capped the scoring in the first half. The sophomore guard finished with 11 points, going 3 for 5 on three-pointers.
The Final Four always had been the intended landing spot this season for Purdue, which became the second top seed to lose to a No. 16 seed when Fairleigh Dickinson shocked the Boilermakers, 63-58, in the round of 64 last year. The stunning result came five years after No. 1 seed Virginia fell to No. 16 Maryland Baltimore County, 74-54. The Cavaliers won the national title the following year, charting a path the Boilermakers are one win from following.
With Edey named national player of the year for a second straight season, Purdue tore through the first two weekends of the NCAA tournament, winning by an average of more than 21 points. It was the third-most-lopsided margin of victory through the first four games in any NCAA tournament.
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“It’s everything we’ve worked for, everything we thought about,” Loyer said of reaching the final. “A lot of late nights, can’t even sleep because you’re thinking about it. It’s been tough, but we fought. We’re going to keep fighting. We’ve got 40 more minutes until we’re national champs.”
NCAA Men's Final Four
The Wolfpack traversed a far more unlikely path to the fourth Final Four in program history and the first since 1983, when it won the national championship under Jim Valvano. This season, it would not have earned a berth in the NCAA tournament had it not won five games in as many days at the ACC tournament in Washington.
Outnumbered but undeterred, North Carolina State fans made the most noise at the start Saturday, chanting, “Wolfpack! Wolfpack! Wolfpack!” shortly before tip-off, but the Boilermakers gave their supporters much more to celebrate early in the first half behind Edey, who operated freely without facing a double team.
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Keatts elected to guard Edey with a lone defender, and most often Burns drew the assignment. But even at 275 pounds, Burns was unable to provide much resistance on the low block, where Edey converted short jumpers or passed out to open teammates when the Wolfpack sagged on defense.
Purdue opened its first double-digit lead in such a sequence when Wolfpack guard Casey Morsell missed the rim on a three-point attempt before Edey collected the ball in the lane and delivered a pass to Jones behind the arc. The fifth-year guard swished the attempt to put the Boilermakers ahead 21-11 midway through the first half.
“I don’t know that I could be more proud of a group of men that I’ve ever coached in my life,” Keatts said. “Adversity — you name it. Situations — you name it. Hard times — you name it. They found a way to win the ACC. They found a way to make it to the Final Four. We’re going to leave out of here because Purdue won the game, but we’ll walk out of here with our heads up as champions because of what we’ve been able to provide.”
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