Edey dominant again as Boilermakers roll
Scores 27 as Purdue reaches Midwest final
DETROIT — They leaned on him. They jawed at him. One time, they slapped him right across the forehead. None of it came close to stopping Purdue’s big man, Zach Edey, and now he and the Boilermakers are one win away from the Final Four.
The 7-foot-4 Edey withstood all the abuse Gonzaga could lay on him Friday night, finishing with 27 points and 14 rebounds to lift Purdue to an 80-68 victory over the Bulldogs.
There were highlights galore in the Midwest Region No. 1 seed’s 32nd victory of the season, including a 14-point, 15-assist, eight-rebound masterpiece from guard Braden Smith.
No moment, though, told the story better than at the end of the first half when Edey had Gonzaga’s Ben Gregg pinned underneath the basket. Gregg, in a desperation move to make a play, flailed at the ball and ended up roundhousing Edey full-on in the forehead with his open hand, picking up his third foul.
“It didn’t feel good,” Edey said to a room full of laughs. “Obviously, he was just trying to make a play for the ball, just missed it and whack-amoled my head a little bit.”
On Sunday, Purdue, which last year became history’s second firstround loser as a No. 1 seed, will play No. 2 seed Tennessee in Sunday’s Midwest Region final. A win there would land the program in the Final Four for the first time since 1980.
Smith finished two assists shy of joining Joe Barry Carroll — who played on Purdue’s last Final Four squad — as the program’s second player to record a triple-double. Smith made two of Purdue’s seven 3-pointers in the first half, all of which forced Gonzaga into a choice no team wants to make — take away the 3s or sag down on Edey, the nation’s leading scorer.
“It’s pick your poison,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “They shot it great from 3, and then in the second half, we shut down that area pretty good. Then, Edey was just a load.”
Once Edey got loose, foul trouble and an ever-shrinking basket ended the hopes for the fifth-seeded Zags.
Graham Ike had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Bulldogs, who shot only 38 percent over the first 15 minutes of the second half and fell to 0-3 vs. Edey and the Boilermakers over the past two seasons.