INDIANAPOLIS — Zach Edey once again dominated with 23 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks and two steals to lead the top-seeded Purdue Boilermakers to a 106-67 second-round Midwest Region rout of No. 8 seed Utah State on Sunday.
Purdue (31-4) advances to play No. 5 seed Gonzaga on Friday in Detroit.
Lance Jones and Trey Kaufman-Renn sparked a 20-6 uprising to open the second half, turning a 16-point lead into 30. Purdue didn’t let its foot off the gas in the second half, building the lead as high as 41.
Kaufman-Renn finished with 18 points and eight rebounds for Purdue, while Fletcher Loyer added 15 points and six assists and Jones scored nine points. The Boilermakers went 8-of-14 from 3-point range in the second half to put the game away.
“I think it just kind of proves to the country that I already believed: We’re a really deep team,” Edey said. “When I went out, we were good. When Braden (Smith) went out, we were good. We’ve got a lot of guys that can go and a lot of guys that can sustain a high level of play.”
Purdue set a program record for points scored in an NCAA Tournament game.
“Across the board, just pleased with our guys,” coach Matt Painter said. “Anytime you can outrebound somebody by 23 and then your turnovers are even, you’re going to be in a pretty good position.”
Great Osobor had 14 points and Josh Uduje added 13 for Utah State (28-7), which fell to 7-25 all-time in NCAA Tournament play and fell a round shy of reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1970.
“I think there’s elite teams and there’s special teams, and they can be special,” Utah State coach Danny Sprinkle said of Purdue. “When you have a player like Zach Edey, he’s special. There hasn’t been many guys like that in college basketball history. That’s why I think they can just take it to another level.”
Purdue thrilled the heavily-partisan crowd of 16,770 that turned out to watch them advance to the Sweet 16 for the second time in three years.
Utah State provided some resistance early on, taking leads of 14-10 and 20-17.
But after Uduje hit a 3-pointer with 9:21 left in the first half to put the Aggies ahead 23-21, Utah State missed its next 12 shots from the field while Purdue caught fire behind Edey, Jones and Kaufman-Renn.
Purdue went on a run of 18-1 to take a 39-24 lead. Jones ended the first-half scoring when he banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to put the Boilermakers up 49-33.
Jones opened the second half with a trey as well, just 13 seconds in.
After Braden Smith stole a pass from Ian Martinez, he found Kaufman-Renn cutting to the basket for a layup.
On the next possession, Kaufman-Renn’s two-handed slam ignited the Purdue fans, putting the Boilermakers up 56-33 and sparking a desperate timeout from Utah State head coach Danny Sprinkle just 73 seconds into the half.
–Mike Petraglia, Field Level Media
