This time it wasn’t the free throws. It wasn’t the shooting. It was the defense.
“Obviously, we couldn’t stop them,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said.
In a game when the Illini fixed a few things they had been doing wrong, they couldn’t contain Purdue guard E’Twaun Moore. The freshman from East Chicago scored a career-high 24 points Saturday to lead Purdue to an 83-75 victory at Assembly Hall.
Moore scored 20 of Purdue’s 44 second-half points to kill an Illinois comeback.
“We got to within three points, and Moore got going,” Illinois forward Brian Randle said. “We couldn’t get a stop to save our lives. We made free throws that kept us close, but he got going and they kept going to him.”
With its seventh straight victory, Purdue (17-5, 8-1) took sole possession of first place in the Big Ten, and the Illini (10-13, 2-8) fell further from postseason contention.
Weber was quite familiar with Moore from the recruiting trail.
“I’ve known the kid a long time and seen him play, but not like that,” Weber said. “Some of [those shots] were contested.”
Purdue also received a big boost from Leyden High’s Marcus Green, who came off the bench to score 15 points and led the Boilermakers with nine first-half points.
“Obviously Moore was big-time, huge, but I thought the difference in the game was Marcus Green in the first half,” Weber said.
In a fast-paced, physical game, the teams combined for 48 fouls and shot 76 free throws.
The Boilermakers’ aggressive, hand-checking defense immediately drew the attention of Weber, who was on the officials early. With 2:18 left in the first half, he drew his first technical of the season and tossed his jacket to the bench.
“They play very physical,” Weber said. “They’re aggressive. As a coach you have to fight for your guys and make sure you have the fairness of the game.”
“We’re trying not to hand-check,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “We have to do a better job of it.”
Illinois did a better job on free throws, shooting a season-high 73.2 percent from the line. Randle, a senior, made 9 of 11 on his way to a career-high 21 points.
“I’ll be honest, I thought we’d win — come together and find a way to win,” Weber said. “But Purdue played very well, and that performance was as good as any team we played this year other than Duke (in the Maui Invitational semifinal). I think they have a chance to make a run at the [Big Ten] title.”
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tabannon@tribune.com
